MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New Lan Chile airline Union form

Union leaders from LAN – Chile's largest airline – will meet on August 29 to form a comprehensive new union organization that they hope will avoid the problems currently plaguing labor organizers around the nation.

Currently, only 2,400 of LAN's 8,000 employees are members of unions. LAN Union chief Claudius Stone acknowledges that the corporate structure of the company has prevented further labor organization. This is because the company's assets are allocated under numerous different trade names, requiring unions to negotiate with each individually, and making unified collective bargaining all but impossible. The same problem was cited by organizers in the supermarket sector, where massive holding companies Cencosud and D&S use more than 100 trade names to force organizers to decentralize the negotiation process (ST, Aug. 23). "The company is divided in several branches. This has reduced our force because it requires us to negotiate separately with each one of them. Because they have this power, the company never has recognized us like a federation of numerous unions and instead negotiates branch by branch," said Stone. However, the prospects for a stronger LAN union were bolstered by recent legal proceedings which strengthen their claim that all of the trade names should be considered as part of LAN, and not individual entities. In a recent hearing, the head of an airline security organization admitted that his company was contacted by the same LAN officials who contracted work for LAN assets under a series of different trade names. Union organizers argue that this is a recognition that the different trade names are actually subordinates of one larger company, indicating that unions should then be allowed to negotiate with LAN as just one company. With this new legal ammunition, Stone hopes the new union will double in size to at least 5,000 members. "We are now in the process of unifying all LAN workers into a national union, from Arica to Punta Arenas," he said. Corporate officials from LAN have not yet commented on this issue. (Santiago Times)