Airlines to unions: there is no money for wage increases

Aviation unions have called for the new head of Aerolíneas Argentinas, Fabio Lombardoa salary increase due to “inflation and devaluation” in recent months”, but the response they received It was null.

“In light of our proposed salary negotiation following the inflation and devaluation seen in recent months, company leadership stated do not have any type of offer in this context”, say the “United Aeronautical Unions”, which make up the trade unions, in a statement APLA (pilots), APA (Ground staff), SUITED (aeronautical technicians) e UPSA (hierarchical).

Regardless of the expressions used, Lombardo’s message to the unions replicated the one supported by the national government: “There’s no money”. But this also comes in a context in which the government has ordered the reprivatization of the airline, along with other state-owned companies. The Government’s plan, according to President Milei, is to deliver the company’s shares to its workers.

The conditions of this peculiar privatization, for the moment, would not include a single burden of the State, or at least they would not leave the State in obligation grant new subsidies: the Decree of Necessity and Urgency 70 takes away from Aerolíneas the guarantee of the subsidies it has received by law since 2012.

Under these conditions, it was the unions themselves who proposed that Aerolíneas cannot survive as a company over time. “Sooner or later it will disappear,” said the head of the pilots’ union, Pablo Biró.

In this context, the meeting between Lombardo and the unions took place on Tuesday. Lombardo was appointed president of the Airlines by the current Minister of Infrastructure, Guillermo Ferraro and comes from the previous management. Between the end of 2019 and December he was commercial director of the management he led Pablo Ceriani and who politically responded to the national senator Mariano Recalde.

Although he has a profile technicianLombardo’s two previous terms date back to ten years of running the company The Campora.

Lombardo has not made any public statements since being appointed to the new position, but when Minister Ferraro, now his superior, released a new airline schedule with the elimination of some executives, the company reported that this task was “ coordinated” with the Infrastructure portfolio.

The unions have taken note of this. “The new (airline) authorities have detailed the financial situation of the company and the difficult scenario we are facing, specifying that there are still no definitions regarding the direction of the company”, adds the union statement.

At least three aeronautical corporations They have already joined the strike called by the CGT for next Wednesday: the APTA, led by Ricardo Cirielli, the Aeronautical Association, led by Moyanista Juan Pablo Brey, and the Atepsa union, which brings together several air traffic controllers. But for the moment the unions have limited themselves to declaring that their protest is against the DNU and the government’s omnibus law. As for Aerolíneas, they only said that “we will continue to insist on our demands, both regarding salaries (…) and the need for clear direction”.