President Javier Milei’s government warned aviation unions on Thursday that continuing strike action for wage increases will prompt a speedier sell-off of state flagship carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas.
Owing to the escalation of conflict with aviation workers, the national government has started talks with “several Latin American private companies” to take over Aerolíneas “in case the extortion continues,” said Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni.
"By virtue of the persistent strikes called by the union ... the national government has initiated talks with several private Latin American companies to finally take over the operation of Aerolíneas Argentinas in case the extortion that Argentines are receiving with these types of measures continue," Adorni said at a press conference.
The 44-year-old made the remarks after top members of the Milei administration held a meeting to determine the carrier’s future.
“We will bury union pickets and the privileges of a caste. We will crack down on aviation unions’ pickets,” declared Adorni.
The privatisation of Argentina’s state airline is a long-held desire of Prsident Milei, who included it on a list of state companies to be sold off in his so-called ‘Ley de Bases’ mega-reform bill.
However, during negotiations to secure the bill’s passage through Congress, the administration pulled the firm from the slate of firms up for sale.
The government’s threat comes after weeks of conflict with unions of pilots, airport security personnel and other aeronautical unions.
'Provocative'
Aviation workers are demanding salary increases amid falling purchasing power and incomes.
Unions had rejected in August as "provocative" a single-digit offer proposed by the government.
Inflation over the last 12 months totals 236 percent. Consumer prices last month rose 4.2 percent.
Adorni also questioned the right to strike: "In a private company, if you go on strike and complicate operations, you get fired.”
On Tuesday, Milei declared air transport services to be "essential" by decree, obliging unions to guarantee 50 percent of services in the event of strikes.
The move looked set to intensify a showdown between the budget-slashing president and unions representing staff at the flagship carrier, which slammed the move as an "illegal" impingement on the right to strike.
Under new rules set forth in two decrees published in the Official Gazette on Monday, unions must give five days notice of a strike.
A commission will then have 24 hours to decide which flights will be maintained during the strike, "which must not be less than 50 percent of those affected," Federico Sturzenegger, Milei’s minister for deregulation and state transformation, wrote on the social platform X.
If the commission fails to reach agreement, the Labour Ministry will determine which flights must be maintained, he added.
Unions accuse the government of "seeking the self-inflicted closure of Aerolíneas Argentinas."
Adorni’s remarks were delivered as aeronautical unions staged rotating strikes by time slots at the country's 27 airports, without affecting flights, according to the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC).
Despite the strikes, "all airports are operating with adequate operational safety," the body said.
Unions reported
Adorni also revealed that the Security Ministry had reported the secretary general of APLA Airline Pilots’ Association Pablo Biró for “threats and extortion," after he stated that the conflict with the government “is serious and will get much worse.”
The portfolio believes the remarks “might be in excess of the right to strike under the Constitution and amount to an unlawful act in the form of the crime of extortive threats,” it said in a statement.
Meetings from Milei’s Cabinet meeting were shared online, with a post on social media bearing the slogan: “Government meeting to end the permanent extortion by Aerolineas Argentinas’ unions.”
The meeting took place after the unions launched industrial action in response to the “worrying wage situation” in the sector and in “rejection of dismissals.”
Former president Maruicio Macri backed Milei on Thursday, calling for the “urgent dismantling” of Aerolíneas Argentinas, describing the firm as a “ruinous dead-end”.
The PRO leader reappeared on Thursday via a message on social network X, as the confrontation between the La LIbertad Avanza administration and unions worsens after the “essential nature of air transport” was declared after repeated strikes.
In this vein, Macri supported the government’s measures and took aim at Biró
“For the good of all Argentines, what Aerolíneas Argentinas needs is an urgent dismantling plan. The current situation is a ruinous dead-end. The collective agreements of APLA (pilots); APTA (mechanics and customs brokers) and AAA (representing crewmembers) stipulate unsustainable and shameful privileges.
“Biró and his partners have conned Argentines for too many years, even those who do not fly, under the false flag of sovereignty and the anachronistic (and costly) concept of a flag carrier”, he added. He further stated that unions “have taken it upon themselves to have few flights, to make them expensive, and to have fewer connections between provinces”, while he accused them of “brazenly harassing the competition."
– TIMES/PERFI/AFP
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