MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Aerolineas Argentinas grounded by workers

The 24-hour strike launched at midday Thursday by pilots and mechanics at Aerolineas Argentinas forced the cancellation of 38 flights and left some 10,000 passengers stranded, the carrier said.

Pilots and technicians from Aerolineas Argentinas and Austral airlines yesterday went on a 24-hour strike at noon, following the end of a 90-day truce during which an increase in salary was meant to be negotiated. Juan Pappalardo, of the Association of Aeronautical Technical Personnel, revealed yesterday before the strike that his union had collaborated with the Association of Airline Pilots

Announcing the strike, he said, "All flights in the Buenos Aires airport Jorge Newbery and Ezeiza international airport have been suspended." He also warned that if the strike "produces even one dismissal, there will be a strike for an unforeseeable period of time."

Pappalardo had given the first suggestion of the union action earlier in the day, saying that the unions had "exhausted" all forms of negotiation. He claimed that their companies had promised them to channel to salaries the whole additional 160 million pesos that they will earn due to higher fares, but that actually only 11 million pesos were offered in wages.

The failure of the truce to find any solution led to the strike action, which has caused an airport standstill. A nine-day strike in December last year kept some 85,000 passengers from flying.

The spokesperson for APLA, Gabriel Morselli, said, "We do not discard a progressive deepening of the chosen action." Meanwhile, customers of Aerolineas Argentinas and its sister company Austral were furious at the lack of flights. The police set up a barrier of officers so as to stop members of the public from entering.

The leaders of the Association of Aeronautical Personnel decided to take their employees away from public view due to what they described as "growing unrest, violence and aggressions from the passengers, indignant at the absence of flights."

The leader of the organization, Edgardo Llano, said, "The violent passenger is an increasingly frequent practice and it has become a dangerous threat to the aeronautical worker."

Passengers were threatening to skip the toll that they must pay to enter the airport if no solution was reached.

One youth, due to fly to La Rioja just minutes after the strike began, said, "They won't give us our money back because they say that the flights are delayed and not cancelled."

Meanwhile, the Association of Aeronautical Personnel was considering taking similar action in other parts of the country. It said, however, that there is "a legitimate autonomy of the technicians and workers unions to declare action."

Once state-owned, Aerolineas Argentinas is now operated by the Spanish tourism group Marsans.(BAH/MP)