Progress in Aerolíneas Argentinas towards an agreement with the unions

The Guild of Aerolíneas Argentinas pilots I was negotiating in the early hours of this Wednesday a pre-agreement with the company to establish a series of clippings of your employment benefits. The negotiation, to prosper, must still be approved by the assembly of APLA affiliates so that the agreement remains firm.

The other two unions that negotiate their conditions with the company, the Aircraft Association (AAA) and the Aeronautical Personnel Association (WHAT) not yet They closed a preliminary agreement like that of the pilots. However, official sources indicated that with these two unions “they also progress is being made“.

Even with progress, the Air Line Pilots Association (APLA) assured that nothing was signed yet.

“Negotiations will surely continue until late at night. In the hypothetical case of agreement, it will be informed and accepted in the respective Assemblies, to which we will call urgently“said an APLA statement issued at 0:30 this Wednesday.

Airlines had offered months ago a salary increase of 11.8% nominal, base (without counting additional) for the June-August period, which is the one that for the moment continues to be taken as a reference for the union claim. That was the increase he gave to the only two guilds that their joint ventures negotiated at that time, APTA and UPSA.

In the case of pilots, the proposal for a salary increase it would be differentwith an important difference on the modality that was applied until now.

The salary increase for the June-November semester of the pilots, as agreed, would be from 16%. Any review with the calculator shows that the proportion between the quarterly increase of the other two unions is much more advantageous than the total that the pilots obtained for a full semester.

However, for the pilots there would be a mechanism of productivity incentives. “Those who The more they fly, the more they will charge“Official sources said that was what was put on the table.

The productivity of Aerolíneas Argentinas pilots is lower than that of their colleagues from other airlines in the region. As a comparison mechanism, it is often mentioned that a transoceanic flight commander does not exceed the 40 to 50 hours per month contra 70 hours from a competitor LATAM, Copa o Avianca.

With this new remuneration mechanism, a figure of “productivity” would be included that until now nor did it appear in the dictionary of airline pilots.

The other leg of the agreement refers to concessions in collective agreements of APLA work –the privileges in the Government’s lexicon – which monopolized most of the almost eight hours of negotiations this Tuesday at the headquarters of Aerolíneas Argentinas.

free tickets in business class, rest in the birthday days, computed work time since the truck picks them up due to their domicile were some of the points that they were required to lower from the agreements.

Other issues are linked to shorten rest times in remote destinations like Madrid and Rome, stop having a business class seat during flight time and a sharp reduction in discounted tickets for almost their entire value (at 25% of its nominal value) for pilots, crew members and their family members.

The negotiation was with a delegation of pilots headed by the union secretary of APLA, Mateo Ferreria. The number one in the guild, Pablo Biró, did not attend to any of the three meetings at the Aerolíneas headquarters, between Friday and Tuesday, but the negotiations continued by phonetogether with the union spokesperson, Juan Pablo Mazzieri.

Both the owner of Airlines, Fabian Lombardoas the union representatives assured that the negotiations “advanced” in the sense that the Government demanded: achieving a “sustainable” plan for the company, which only so far this year He already had about 20 union force measures.

Strictly speaking, even if the parties end up completely ratifying this pre-agreement, it would be a negotiation that aims above all to achieve a period of social peace for the company, afflicted by the drop in ticket sales the time of year that usually raises the most money, at the beginning of the summer season.

The salary scale Airlines round between 600 and 700 million dollars per year according to industry sources, and represents approximately 40% of your total income.

The modification of collective labor agreements does not aim so much to generate significant savings but rather to get unions to accept labor clauses more in line with private companies that aim to profitability.