Luis Ceriotto
07/27/2020 - 7:01
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
The LATAM Argentina airline is still unable to move five of its Airbus A320 aircraft from the Metropolitan Airport, where expansion works will begin next week, both on the runway and in the passenger terminal. The planes are parked on the runway and inside the hangar that LATAM built at that airport more than a decade ago, and if it does not take off this week to some other airport, they must remain forcibly during the four months that the work is scheduled to last.
This retention of the planes is part of the resistance of the aeronautical unions, which refuse to take them off to the airports of Córdoba and Ezeiza , as requested by the company. The union move aims to force a negotiation with the Chilean and Brazilian capital company to pay double compensation to employees who are still linked.
In mid-June, LATAM announced the closure of its local subsidiary and requested the opening of a crisis prevention procedure, to dismiss its 1,715 employees . After a series of hearings, both with the company and with the aeronautical unions, the Ministry of Labor denied the opening of the PPC. The company announced that it will appeal the decision administratively, to the portfolio headed by Claudio Moroni.
On July 14, it was the first demonstration of LATAM workers at the Aeroparque gate, in support of those who camped in the hangar. This Saturday there was another demonstration. Photo Germán García Adrasti
But in fact, the employees who are still pending this negotiation are already less than half of those who were there a month ago. Some 900 employees have already been terminated through agreements from the voluntary retirement program that the company reopened after announcing its closure. The company, for example, already has practically no pilots: out of 220 that it had on its payroll last month, 190 have already taken the voluntary retirement .
As for the planes, it is a pledge of null negotiation and potentially expensive for the Argentine State. It happens that none of these aircraft are owned by LATAM , but belong to international financial companies, specialized in aircraft rental under the figure of "leasing". This modality is very common in all airlines and, in fact, most of the airlines' planes are also on leasing.
But in the case of LATAM Airbus, although the company made some investments in recent years, it is also a very old fleet with almost zero market value, at a time when a drastic reduction is expected. of all the fleets in the world and, therefore, an oversupply of used aircraft.
According to the specialized site Planepotters.net, the Airbus A-320 held at Aeroparque are those with the LV-BFO registration, which are 17.8 years old . They are followed by those with LV-BFY ( 17.9 years ), LV-BHU ( 19.2 years ), LV-CQS ( 19.1 years ) and, the "newer" one, the Airbus A320 LV-GUS registration, with 12.1 years .
If LATAM ends up not complying with their return, paradoxically it could be a great business for the "lessors", since they would be given the right to initiate legal actions that would end up falling to the Argentine State . "That would be, by far, a much better business than the scrapping destination that awaits these aircraft," said a source from a union that in fact ceased to exist : the Union of Pilots Aviators of LATAM (UPAL).
This Saturday, company employees and union representatives demonstrated, once again, at the door of the Aeroparque to support some 30 employees who have camped in the LATAM hangar since July 13. With the slogan " #no extortion ", the unions claim double compensation . The same Saturday, in radio statements, Minister Moroni said that "the administrative stage is closed" and that what follows for LATAM and its employees "are individual decisions."
Legally, what governs is a double compensation scheme in force since mid-December, which the Government extended again. But from the company they said that they are going to insist, through an administrative appeal, that the cause of "force majeure" be recognized to apply Article 247 of the Labor Law, which allows paying 50% compensation . In parallel, they continue to offer a voluntary withdrawal for an amount of around 100% of the compensation .
The company is also in the process of delivering the properties it rented as offices, both at its headquarters in Costa Salguero and at the various airports in the interior of the country . Instead, it maintains its Ezeiza headquarters , which does not belong to the local subsidiary but to the international holding company. This LATAM division employs between 400 and 500 people and, in principle, they would not be affected by the closure of the subsidiary.