The specter of bankruptcy haunts more than 5,000 Interjet employees

Workers of the Interjet airline in a protest last Friday in Guadalajara.Francisco Guasco / EFE

The Mexican airline Interjet is experiencing its lowest hours after the outbreak of a strike declared by unionized workers last Friday.

After four months without receiving salaries, or the payment of the Christmas bonus or savings fund, the more than 5,000 employees of the Mexican airline decided to lower their arms in protest to demand that the company comply with their labor rights.

As of this Friday, the unionized workers have ceased their activities and have taken under their custody the assets of the company, including five aircraft.

The strike has been one of the most critical chapters facing the Mexican airline, which has been accumulating problems in recent months.

Added to the collapse of income due to the coronavirus crisis is the debt of around 20 million dollars that it has with the Mexican treasury and the lack of liquidity to face it.

In the midst of internal crisis, the Alemán family ceded control of the airline to Alejandro del Valle, however, the change of helm failed to stop the dismissals, non-payment of payroll and the operational debacle: since December 11, the airline suspended all your flights.

“On December 31, they gave all the general workers a fortnight and as we said 'maybe they will pay us the rest', but then no, they didn't give us anything else.

I feel that the airline was already a bit bad before and the coronavirus thing ended, "said an Interjet employee who preferred to omit his name for fear of reprisals.

He worked at the airline in the baggage loading and unloading area.

Now, together with a dozen colleagues, he stands guard 24 hours a day behind the red and black flags installed at the counters at the Mexico City International Airport.

The man, a native of Guerrero, assured that there have been months of concern and anger for him and his family, so they had no choice but to support the union's proposal to lower their arms.

Section 15 of the Mexican Workers' Confederation (CTM), which represents the airline's employees, reported last Friday that 62% of its members voted in favor of the work stoppage.

"The strike will seek to preserve the few or many assets that the company has in order to liquidate or collect the legitimate rights of workers such as wages, benefits and compensation," the union said in a statement.

So far, the company has not issued any statement regarding the protest of its workers.

72 hours after the strike, a dozen workers remain at the counters to prevent the federal authorities from removing their red and black flags from the capital airport.

Interjet's strike badges are just a few meters away from the space occupied by former employees of Mexicana, the airline that went bankrupt in 2014. The specter of this company's bankruptcy also worries Interjet employees who are still waiting. reach a negotiation with the new Interjet investors.

Danilo Carmona, who worked until August in the revenue optimization area, recalls that from one day to the next the company went from earning from 50 million pesos a day to only 3 million derived from the coronavirus crisis.

The 31-year-old former employee warns that without staff the airline is one step away from bankruptcy after this outbreak of strike.

"There is a lot of pessimism, many of the colleagues feel disappointed and find it difficult to recover some of their money," he says.

In Monterrey, Roberto Díaz Trejo, 40, is still waiting for Interjet to pay him the equivalent of his liquidation and savings fund after being fired last April.

Now that the workers have gone on strike, the outlook has turned bleaker for this employee.

“They are no longer going to pay us what they owe us, neither to those who fired us, nor to those of us who left much less to them.

They owed me between 35,000 and 37,000 pesos.

They gave us nothing.

It is not worth that they have done this to us, in the offices and nobody answers us ”.

Díaz Trejo worked as ground crew and was in charge of cleaning the planes at night.

With the reduction of air routes, the corporation made the decision to close its department in the State.

The cancellation of routes was followed by the dismantling of its fleet: in less than two quarters the airline went from having 68 aircraft to just seven, according to data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency.

In addition to labor lawsuits, the airline also faces numerous complaints from customers who have been affected by route cancellation without prior notice. The company's website has been out of service for days as user complaints accumulate through social media. Last year alone, the Federal Consumer Attorney's Office (Profeco) received more than 1,500 consumer complaints against Interjet. The agency issued an alert in December about the risk of establishing commercial relations with the airline after noting “a significant reduction in its air fleet, the suspension of routes, recurrent cancellations of its flights and the lack of liquidity to maintain a minimum operational capacity regarding of the fuel payment ”.