Luis Ceriotto
06/19/2020 - 20:35
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
-Is there any possibility that this decision could be reversed?
The question of the Minister of Transportation, Mario Meoni, was the closest thing to an offer of negotiation by the Alberto Fernández government to LATAM Argentina . That lukewarm attempt at rapprochement did not stop there and, in fact, quickly wrecked , in front of a long list of reasons by Rosario Altgelt, the head of the local airline. "In these conditions, it is impossible, " said the executive, who joined LATAM in 2000, when it was still only the Chilean airline Lan and there were five years to open the subsidiary in Buenos Aires.
On Wednesday, LATAM Argentina presented, surprisingly , a crisis prevention procedure, before the Ministry of Labor, in which it announced the "total cessation of its operations" in the country and ordered the layoff of its 1,715 employees. In that presentation he detailed that in the last four years he lost 301 million dollars and that for this year his expectations are for an additional loss of US $ 67 million .
48 hours later, Meoni received Altgelt in his office on the 12th floor of the Palacio de Hacienda. Sources who participated in yesterday's meeting underscored the cordial tone of Minister Meoni who, however, did not show any letter that could give rise to the beginning of a negotiation. They agreed that future talks would be channeled through the Ministry of Labor.
Politically, the message was clear: the scope of the Ministry of Labor is not to negotiate the permanence of the company in the country, but to negotiate the conditions of its withdrawal, within the framework of the crisis prevention procedure.
The devaluation of the Macri years, the PAIS tax by Alberto Fernández and the prohibition to sell tickets before September 1 are mentioned in the more than 60-page brief that LATAM submitted to the Labor Office. But, above all, the company detailed in a special annex the continuous wear and tear with seven aeronautical unions throughout more than a decade , and the succession of hundreds of measures that were proposed to improve the productivity of the operation and that collided with the rejection of the guilds.
Also there, he pointed out that Argentine cabin staff fly between 30% and 40% fewer hours than their peers from the group's other subsidiaries, located in Chile, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
"For example, in terms of crews, LAN Argentina (this is still the legal name of the company in the country) is 30% less competitive compared to the rest of the LATAM Group. In addition, in cost in relation to thousands of dollars per month per person, Argentina is 41% higher than the rest of the holding in cabin crews (...) In relation to command crews (pilots), costs are 43% higher ".
In an attached table, they detailed all the salary categories. The highest correspond to the commanders on board the flights between Ezeiza and Miami (Boeing B767), with a total salary, additional included, of almost $ 740,000 per month . The lowest salary for a pilot, as a co-pilot in cabotage (Airbus A320), was at the end of 2019 just under $ 336,000.
"This whole situation puts LAN Argentina in a non-competitive position. LAN Argentina cannot simply raise prices to meet these costs," the company added in another passage.
In a long annex of more than 30 pages, the company detailed hundreds of measures that it tried to apply over the years to improve its productivity, without success. Here are some:
"Electronic platforms could not be installed at airports for the passenger to check-in automatically and proceed to self-dispatch baggage, due to the refusal of union representatives of the Aeronautical Personnel Association (APA)."
"Remote dispatch could not be implemented as a result of the constant refusals by the APTA and USTARA guilds, establishing operational rigidities where an employee cannot dispatch more than three aircraft during a shift, regardless of having sufficient time to do so" .
"A maintenance structure could not be executed (...) where the employer's control power is null, in the face of the constant resistance of the union representation (UPSA) to submit to any type of time control."
"In cabin crews, LAN Argentina was the only member of the LATAM Group that was unable to implement the on-board sales project, an initiative that globally applies to most of the world's airlines."
The company did not forget to mention Aerolineas Argentinas, against which it began to compete in 2005 when it was Spanish-owned and self-financing, until it was nationalized in 2008.
"The effect on the industry that the main player in the local market, Aerolineas Argentinas, received between 2009 and 2019 more than 5.5 billion dollars in transfers from the National Treasury to sustain its operations should not be ignored either. No other line The country's airline receives state subsidies of this nature, "added LATAM.
But an almost loose paragraph in the lengthy presentation is quite illustrative of the climate in which a recall was finalized, which up to now has been presented as inexorable . It is when he describes the recent hearings, also in the Ministry of Labor, when LATAM tried to lower 50% of wages during the months of April, May and June.
"It should be noted that said meetings were held with union representatives that doubtfully represent the real interest of LAN Argentina workers," the company said in its brief. " They have come to express to the authority, in full audience, their desire that Lan Argentina leave the country, that it be expelled, stating that they would do everything in their power to prevent the national government from granting any type of aid or palliative in the crisis for LAN Argentina ".
