The meeting, on Tuesday afternoon, lasted more than four hours in the headquarters of the former Ministry of Labor, on Alem Avenue. At 3pm the headlines arrive from the three aeronautical unions who last week called this Thursday’s strike: Pablo Birò (pilots), Edgardo Llano (ground personnel) e Rubén Fernández (managerial staff) together with about ten comrades who were presented as members of the management committees.
For the airlines, senior staff participated, led by Fabio Lombardo and Intercargo was the Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta. The third leg was Labour’s appointed mediator. A side fact: In an adjoining room, teachers unions were negotiating whether next week lessons start or not.
In the case of the Air Force, they all are old acquaintances: the three leaders have been at the head of their respective corporations since a decade or two (Biró, the “newest”, has been at the helm of APLA since January 2013).
Lombardo, president of Aerolíneas for three months, is also a veteran: He joined Aerolíneas in 2009, under the management of Mariano Recalde, and remained there until December 2015. He left Macri for four years to work for airlines in Brazil and Portugal and returned to Aerolíneas as commercial director in December 2019 summoned by the management led by Pablo Ceriani for the next four years.
There is another old acquaintance among all, who did not participate yesterday: it is Ricardo Cirielli, the driver of the APTA (aeronautical technicians). Cirielli is a member of the “United Aeronautical Unions” alliance together with the other three unions, but APTA he decided not to go on unemployment. Cirielli, who in 2001 he led a historic strike by his union against the Spanish management of Aerolíneasthis time he felt it was “too early” to break ties with the government.
In history, Aerolíneas is not doing badly: the management of La Cámpora announced loudly, shortly after the November ballot, that the airline it did not need state subsidies in the second half of 2023 and that he would also leave a box for the new administration 350 million dollars, composed of the pre-sale of high season season tickets and a bonus of 100 million dollars (of which half was subscribed by the State itself, through Anses).
That story it lasted exactly until today: The aviation strike stated, in black and white, that in order to be able to grant a much more modest wage increase than that of the other unions, government subsidies are neededas reported by Rubén Fernández himself.
“They called us to work at 3pm, after informing us of the possibility of an agreement that the three unions had negotiated the day before,” Fernández said at a press conference at Pilotos headquarters. “There was a discussion, a lot of progress was made and in the end the minutes were signed. In reality we signed them: there were two minutes and a third is pending, when the situation was late. In that moment an official says they are calling us.”
The official was Maurizio Gonzalez Bottowho reports to the Chief of Staff, Nicolas Posse. Union members didn’t know who he was, but when González Botto returned from the phone call it was clear that the meeting It was finished.
“Come back and he says that the Minister of Economy, Totò Caputo, had disavowed himadded Fernández. “Everything we talked about, everything we worked on with government officials who agreed to negotiate ended up failing.”
From there the press conference became an invective by the unions against the Minister of Economy and against the foreign investment funds which, in the view of the unions, want to keep the airlines for money. and then eliminate it and free up the competition.
In fact, Javier Milei himself was the one encouraged that version of the union members, providing through DNU 70 the elimination of all legislative articles that protect airlines both external and internal competition.
That legal protection was not invented by Kirchnerism (it started with the de facto government of Onganía), but by the renationalization of 2008 it was the one that established by law the State’s obligation to grant subsidies to airlines.
Caputo’s denial made it clear, in black and white, that to grant Aerolíneas and Intercargo a modest salary increase (Fernández recalled that It merely matched what had already been achieved by the state-owned UPCN.) is not enough with the billing of the company. Government funds are needed.
The trade unionists have not hidden the discomfort they are experiencing at the moment. They complained that they were the ones who wanted to talk and things like that they have no interlocutors in government. Biró avoided provocative statements and simply outlined what comes next He may have a new milestone during Holy Week.
Lombard He was the last to leave the meeting at work, after 7.30pm When he took office, two months and two days ago, he responded Guillermo Ferrarothe resigning Minister of Infrastructure, and today, in theory, his direct manager is the Cordobese Mogetta. After yesterday’s meeting it was clear that everything I do in Aerolíneas It depends on the approval of the Economy.
Source: Clarin
