An aeronautical union urged its members to go to work this Wednesday

The Union of Senior Airline Personnel (UPSA) union urged its members to show up to work this Wednesday, despite the fact that institutionally the union entity adheres to the general strike called by the transport unions.

The reason? As explained in a statement, UPSA could not obtain judicial approval to revoke the “essentiality” of its services, as members of a commercial air transport union.

It is worth remembering that on September 16, after a series of forceful measures that included several wild strikes at Aerolíneas Argentinas and also at Intercargo, the Government regulated the essentiality of commercial transportation through two decrees, 825/2024 and 831/24. .

The decrees establish that force measures must be notified with at least five business days in advanceto avoid surprise stoppages. They also establish that the percentage of minimum services to be provided during the days of strike “in no case may it be less than fifty percent. And it also puts limits on the “information assemblies” that predominated during the second half of August.

“The holding of assemblies of any type may in no case be invoked to interrupt, directly or indirectlythe normal and regular provision of civil aeronautical activity, public or private, nor, where appropriate, the normal and regular development of the minimum services provided”, states article 5 of Decree 825.

Several of the aeronautical unions made legal presentations against the decrees and so far the only one that obtained a favorable ruling was the Association of Airline Pilots, headed by Pablo Biró.

On the other hand, the judicial presentation, via amparo, made by UPSA was rejected.

“The judge does not reject the substance of the matter but states that there is no “latent conflict” that makes it define the substance“UPSA said this Tuesday, through a statement. “This situation, with small variations, was the same as that experienced by AAA (onboard crew) and APA (ground staff). Only APLA had a favorable ruling, freeing them from essentiality,” the union added.

UPSA is led by Ruben Fernandeza leader close to Biró but who at the same time has his own game: in September he agreed with Aerolíneas Argentinas a salary increase of 11.8% and another two percentage points in bonuses, for the period June-July-August.

Now, without legal coverage to avoid sanctions from the management of Airlines, the union decided not only to give freedom of action to its members for Wednesday’s strike: They urged them to report to work.

“Taking into account that tomorrow’s force measure is guaranteed by UPSA, We will attend our jobs normally; This is in order not to expose any member or the UPSA union to unnecessary conflicts in this context,” the statement concluded.

In the case of the APLA pilots, it is one of the unions that leads the transport strike and they have judicial protection that exempts them from considering their work “essential”, which in turn was appealed by Aerolíneas.

This Tuesday, APLA issued a statement denouncing the management of Aerolíneas: according to reports, the management of the company headed by Fabián Lombardo sent telegrams to the members of the APLA Board of Directors informing them that is making progress in removing “union protection” to expose them to “sanctions” if the airline’s appeal against the union is successful.