Luis Ceriotto
06/17/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 06/17/2021 6:00 AM
The Labor Ministry summoned
Aerolineas Argentinas
and the
Airline Pilots Association (APLA)
to resolve the conflict that the union headed by
Pablo Biró has
maintained with the airline for more than a month. Since May 11, the pilots
stopped attending
the training courses given in the
Aerolineas flight
simulators
in Ezeiza, because they understood that
the sanitary conditions were not
in place in the framework of the pandemic. This situation has
already left 261 pilots on the ground
who do not have their training courses up to date, approximately
20% of the total crew.
of Airlines, according to the complaint that the company filed with the Director of Labor Relations and Regulations,
Gabriela Marcello
.
The state company is chaired by
Pablo Ceriani,
who politically responds to
Mariano Recalde
, national senator and leader of
La Cámpora
.
In its note, Aerolineas stated that the pilots' decision is a "
direct action measure
" and, within this framework, asked the Ministry of Labor "for the
immediate cessation
of the force measure that is hereby denounced, prior to taking the measures that at the individual level correspond to the Pilots who have retained and / or retain tasks based on an illegal mandate ".
However, from APLA they assured that
they are not willing to comply with
an order of this type since, they argued,
it is not a union measure, but a health one.
"Instead of prioritizing the health issue, the company executives choose to resolve this issue on a labor level," says a communication that APLA sent to its affiliates on Twitter.
"We will continue to take within the law
all the measures that are necessary
to protect the health of the pilots and safeguard our rights," the communication added.
The conflict, although it is strictly raised in terms of health conditions in the framework of the pandemic, also takes place at the same time that all the aeronautical unions,
with APLA at the head
, are negotiating with
Aerolineas
and the also state company of ramps
Intercargo
the equal salary October 2020-September 2021, which so far has not had any progress.
Pablo Biró in December, during the first Aerolineas flight to Moscow.
The Biró union would have requested a salary recomposition that is close to inflation projected for this year,
above 40%
, while the offer of Airlines would start from a base on the
monthly average
inflation of last year, before the acceleration that There was in the cost of living during the last months of 2020 and so far this year.
"It would not be strange for the company to
play at mixing
the salary claim with this conflict. But it is not like that. The claim here is purely and exclusively a health issue," they told
Clarín
from APLA.
According to the note that Aerolineas sent to the ministry (which also circulates on Twitter), the company's flight simulators would have adequate sanitary conditions.
And the company, he added in his note, carried out "all the negotiations with the national authorities
to obtain the vaccination against COVID-19
for the ARSA workers."
Recalde in 2013, during the inauguration of Cefrepa.
Photo Télam.
The flight simulators are in the Pilot Training and Training Center (Cefepra) and were inaugurated by the Recalde himself, in 2013, when he was president of Airlines.
The Cefepra is at the entrance of the Ezeiza airport and in its almost half block it has dynamic and static simulators, as well as classrooms and an auditorium.
"The pilots are going to the simulator without being vaccinated, despite the promises they made to us," they added from APLA. "In the simulator you are sharing a closed environment with (at least) two more people for hours, without the possibility of distancing yourself. And you do not have the filters or air recirculation that is in real flights."