Buenos Aires – The strike by Aerolineas Argentinas pilots and technicians entered its fifth day on Monday with no resolution in sight.
The president of the airline, Spaniard Antonio Mata, arrived on Monday in Buenos Aires intending to meet with government officials, who are in the midst of multiple efforts to reestablish dialogue among the parties in the labor conflict.
Meanwhile, the union representing flight attendants and ticket agents offered to mediate the dispute after refusing to join the walkout by the technicians and pilots, who are demanding a salary hike and have defied the Labor Ministry’s Friday order obliging them to reconcile with the firm.
Amid the chaos and the heat of the austral summer, hundreds of passengers had to walk more than a kilometer (nearly a mile) to the Ezeiza airport on the outskirts of Buenos Aires because the strikers had blocked highway access to the country’s largest terminal.
Traffic to the terminal was partially reestablished after several hours, however, when the demonstrators agreed to open up some of the highway’s lanes, while thousands of tourists remained in the airport seeking travel alternatives.
Travelers suffered similar difficulties in the capital’s Jorge Newberry airport, which handles only regional flights, where many persons loudly protested against both the strikers and Aerolineas Argentinas, which along with its subsidiary Austral controls the local air travel market.
“We have spent several great days in Argentina and we want to return home and never come here again,” one Italian tourist sarcastically told local television channels.
The air technicians union complained that the airline, which is owned by Spain’s Marsans group, on Monday prevented some 800 workers from arriving at the workshops and offices it maintains in Ezeiza and Jorge Newberry. In addition, it criticized Aerolineas Argentinas for beginning to send out telegrams terminating 168 of the striking employees.
“We were surprised when we went to work and there was nothing else for us to do but cut the highway,” said Claudio Morales, one of the technicians’ delegates, who accused the airline of making the conflict worse “by pressuring the government to give it some kind of subsidy.”
