People walk in front of Mexicana service stations in Mexico City, August 2010.Marco Ugarte (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The purchase of the brand and assets of the defunct Mexican airline by the federal government hangs in the balance. It has been more than four months since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced an agreement that clearly seemed a success: the Executive would buy the rights of the brand and the assets of this airline come to less to start his own military airline, a transaction for which he offered to pay 815 million pesos, Resources that will be distributed among the 6,500 former employees affected by the bankruptcy of the airline more than a decade ago. The agreement seemed round, the former workers and the federal administration won. At that time, neither the main workers of pilots and flight attendants nor the Government itself anticipated that a couple of amparos would put this project on the ropes: a group of 229 former employees of the airline have refused this transaction and have presented a couple of collective amparos, resources that have prevented lifting the embargo and therefore making use of the assets.
Faced with this legal impasse, this week President López Obrador has given an ultimatum to the dissatisfied workers: either desist from their protections and allow the sale of the assets and the brand before June 5 or withdraw the offer. The real risk of losing the last opportunity to recover some of what they owed Mexicana has set off alarms in the rest of the employees who do want to reach a purchase agreement with the Government. The unions of flight attendants, pilots, trusted workers and retirees of Mexicana have asked this group of just over 200 former employees to reconsider their position and allow the federal administration to buy the brand. However, the dissidents affirm that accepting that agreement would be to renounce compensation, via the award, fairer and in line with those they should receive after 12 years on land.
The Executive has pressed the accelerator to fly the state airline before the end of its mandate. Last week the creation of the company Aerolíneas del Estado Mexicano was made official, the company through which this state airline will operate and which will be part of the Ministry of Defense (Sedena). The president still wants the planes of his airline to bear the name "Mexicana", in addition to this millionaire disbursement he would also acquire other assets: two flight simulators, a training center, a flat in Balderas (Mexico City) and a building in Guadalajara (Jalisco).
Fausto Guerrero Díaz, president of the Association of Retirees, Workers and Former Workers of Mexican Aviation (Ajteam), called on the protesters to reconsider their personal position for the collective good. "Today we have the opportunity for Mexicana to fly again and unfortunately the lack of agreement among the workers can ruin the fact that Mexicana does not fly again. This sale is a dignified exit," he said Thursday at a press conference. Although he acknowledged that López Obrador's offer is lower than what by law corresponds to them after years of not receiving anything for salaries and benefits, he also warned that this has been the only government that has presented them with a proposal for the brand, a commercial name that over the years has been losing value. According to the union leader, if in 2015 the Mexican brand was worth 75 million dollars, today its value has fallen to about 20 million dollars, about 400 million pesos.
He added that if more trials or legal resources were to go, five to 10 more years could be lost, time in which the assets would deteriorate because there is no money to maintain them. "Since last January we were told that the money that is going to be used for the purchase of these goods comes from fiscal year 20 22, so we have to speed up the issue, because if not, then these resources will have to return to the federal fund, "he settled.
Ada Salazar, general secretary of the Trade Union Association of Flight Attendants, (ASSA), explained that the withdrawal of an amparo does not mean that the awards in progress disappear, those resources remain independent, but it is necessary to remove the amparos to lift the embargo and thereby give way to the purchase by the Government. "This is not a liquidation, this is a little bit of oxygen for all of us. The Government has already started the machinery to have another airline, it already has a social reason, but if this is not achieved (buying the Mexican brand), maybe they will put the Welfare Airline or any other name, "he warned.
The union representatives of flight attendants, pilots, ground employees, trust workers and retirees urged their other colleagues to withdraw their protections not only so as not to compromise the sale of the brand, but also because there is a commitment from the Government that they will be taken into account with priority to be part of the personnel of the new military airline. In a last-minute move to prevent the government sale from collapsing, trade unionists have called an extraordinary assembly next Monday to try to convince the dissident group for the last time.
However, the group of these 200 dissident former employees has no intention, even with this deadline on their shoulders, to change their position. Iván Enríquez, one of the workers integrated in this protection, explained that they do not endorse the Government's purchase proposal because it establishes a distribution of resources according to position and seniority, which puts a pilot at a disadvantage compared to a flight attendant. "We agree on the sale, what we do not agree is the distribution they are plotting to make, a former director could charge hundreds of thousands of pesos, while a retiree would charge about 40,000 pesos, under this agreement the most favored are privileged and the unprotected are disdained, "he said.
Enriquez said that this dissident group was left aside at the beginning of the negotiations and they have not had the same information as their other comrades. "We are not going to give up, we have an amparo and we are asking that the case be brought to justice by the Supreme Court of Justice to resolve this matter in depth. The debt that has been generated with retirees is immense, they have not paid us since 2011, "he settled. The retired purser of Mexicana indicated that the 815 million pesos, while the award they are fighting, would mean, if collected, more than two million pesos per former employee.
The former workers of Mexicana, who from one day to the next lost their jobs before the bankruptcy of the company and have spent years in the courts fighting for their awards to be recognized, are now facing a critical decision: they accept at least the 815 million pesos to be distributed among more than 6,000 colleagues or let the government's proposal pass to continue in a fight in courts that promises a greater reward. although this may take years to arrive.
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