Less than a year after the last strike, the pilots return to the load. This time, with the threat of a strike of ten days, starting now on 1 May. Although prove available to cancel the protests will only do so if the TAP and the Government give in to their demands: the return of seniority (seniority allowance) and a slice in the company’s capital. But there is not much room for consensus, which will eventually cause a new hole to the air carrier’s accounts in privatization eve.
The decision of the Civil Aviation Pilots’ Union (SPAC) was known on Wednesday, in the early evening, after a general meeting that lasted nearly seven hours. Members approved a proposal mandating the direction to develop actions to fight satisfy the demands of racers, including the development of a strike notice for the period from 1 to May 10.
The last strike called by the SPAC occurred August 9, 2014, for only 24 hours, although the requirements of the time are very similar to those that led to the announced strike on Wednesday. The last time that TAP was threatened by a strike of ten days, called by the crew, was in July 2011, but was eventually canceled.
materialize the threat of riders company’s operations will be at risk, as this professional class has the ability to make virtually all planes on the ground. The hole for the carrier’s accounts is still difficult to predict. TAP has estimated a loss of five million every day of the strike, based on the average revenue it generates every 24 hours, but this is still necessary to add the costs of rescheduling of flights and, above all, assistance to passengers.
And the decision of the drivers comes after 2014 was already a record year of protests in TAP, since in addition to the strike of the pilots, there was also a four-day shutdown of the crew , contesting the operators handling and the air traffic controllers as well as the threat of a four day break between Christmas and the New Year, which did not materialize.
Results : the company had losses of 46.4 million euros last year, justified in part by labor instability. In the TAP group, which includes other businesses such as maintenance unit in Brazil, the losses were 85.1 million. Numbers that do not favor privatization, which will give an important step since the May 15, with the submission of bids.
The labor instability that the airline lives play against the expectation of the Government that the operation goes well, contrary to what happened in 2012, when the process was suspended after the rejection of the offer of German Efromovich. On Wednesday, the Spanish group Globalia announced that gave up buying TAP (see box) and Efromovich seems increasingly distant from the business.
The strike that is now on the table will start 15 days before the proposals, which puts the government in a very delicate position. On the one hand, we must defend the TAP impacts from a standstill this level and ensure that the sale runs feature. On the other, there is no room to meet the requirements of pilots. On Wednesday, before the decision known, the economy minister said believe “in the word” pilots, hoping assume the commitments.
The issues that separate the SPAC TAP and executive are difficult to solve, starting with the requirement that pilots keep from getting an equity stake in the company, following agreement signed in 1999 with the government of then. At this point, the current executive has proved irreducible, supporting up an opinion of the Advisory Council of the Attorney General’s Office, which considered the illegal agreement. The other point that generated this tug-of-iron with respect to seniority suspended since 2011. The pilots argue that their return was shaped in agreement that the government signed with nine unions in December and led to the cancellation of the four-day strike between Christmas and the New Year. Something the executive and TAP itself deny. With Rosa Soares
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