The federal government and the former employees of Mexicana de Aviación have reached an agreement for the sale of assets of the extinct airline for 816 million pesos, 12 years after the flag carrier declared bankruptcy in 2010. The Andrés Administration Manuel López Obrador has negotiated with the main unions of pilots, flight attendants and retired airline employees to acquire the goods in the hands of the workers: two flight simulators, a training center, a flat in Balderas (Mexico City) and a building in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and above all the coveted Mexican brand that the president seeks to overcome in his new airline operated by the Army.
After more than a decade on land, the former workers endorsed the Government's proposal,
Captain José Alonso Torres, press secretary of the Aviation Pilots Union Association (Aspa), details that after the signing of the agreement between the federal government and the former employees who were still fighting after the bankruptcy of Mexicana, the unions began the process before the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration (JFCyA) to desist from the embargoes and thus continue with the purchase-sale process.
Alonso Torres acknowledges that this agreement leaves a bittersweet taste among the former employees of Mexicana de Aviación because
roughly
recognizes that former workers will not get even 10% of what they were supposed to earn when the company declared bankruptcy.
“What prevailed, although we are not happy, were the Mexican families.
If we oppose, we are going to go for another 12 years and this will never end, ”he insists.
Time and the devaluation of assets have played against the former workers of Mexicana de Aviación who have ended up accepting the offer of the Government of López Obrador.
Although the union offered the Executive also for sale the other brands of the company such as Mexicana Click and Mexicana Link, the federal Administration was only interested in the flagship name of the airline.
Once the Ministry of Communications and Transportation deposits the money and the assets are released, the resources will be dispersed among the affected employees.
The union representative commented that for the distribution of these resources, the last ordinary salary paid in July 2010, before the airline stopped operating, will be taken into account, and the resources will be distributed according to the salary and seniority of the workers. .
The union representative warns that, although at the time Mexicana de Aviación finally went bankrupt, in 2014, there were more than 7,500 employees, now they will have to carry out a new census to verify how many former workers continue to be affected by the decline of the company and between They will share the 800 million pesos that the Government has promised to pay before February 15.
The agreement was signed by ASPA, the Aviation Flight Attendants Union Association of Mexico (ASSA), the Transport Workers Union (SNTTTASS) and the Coalition of Trusted Employees.
Alonso also says that there is no promise of work once this new Mexican takes flight.
However, he emphasizes that there are thousands of specialized workers who can join the new air project operated by the Armed Forces.
“It is not what we expected from money and also knowing that a new airline is going to be launched, of which we do not know the work plan, how they are going to operate, the competition that is being created and it could be a harm to us. that we work in the industry”, he refers.
López Obrador hopes that the new airline will take to the skies at the end of 2023, at the same time as the Mayan Train.
López Obrador's state project, under the Mexican brand, will not only operate a fleet of 10 planes, including the controversial presidential plane, but will also manage six other airports —including Felipe Ángeles, in the State of Mexico— and the mega-project railway in the southeast of the country: the Mayan Train.
Mexicana de Aviación was the first firm to receive the first concession for commercial air transport in Mexico in 1921. Although for decades it functioned as a mixed capital airline, in the 1990s it returned to private hands and in 2005 —during the Government by Vicente Fox—was acquired by Grupo Posadas from the Gastón Azcárraga family.
The firm was for years the largest airline in Latin America, but after almost 90 years of operation it landed suddenly due to the economic crash in August 2010 and fell into bankruptcy in the middle of a financial crisis, leaving more than 7,000 on the street. employees.
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