Labor Actions Taking Place In Chile, Colombia, Ecuador And Argentina In Support Of Strikes By Mechanics, FAs

This week, the aviation unions of the ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) Network of LATAM Unions in Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia will be taking action to support the mechanics of LAN Peru and the flight attendants of LAN Argentina. The workers will inform passengers in the airport about the actions.

The passengers need to know that the demands of the LAN and TAM Airline workers are fair and that the company has the resources to resolve the conflicts. Aviation labor conditions impact the quality of life of workers and potentially the high standards of service on flights.

The IWF said in a media release that a planned strike of the mechanics union (SITALANPE) on June 26th and 27th would affect flights in the country and the region. Licensed aviation mechanics are required to certify all aircraft. SITALANPE represents 70 percent of the workforce.

The union said in a news release that in Argentina, the flight attendants have suffered time and again delays in their collective rights. Since 2005, when the company began operations in Argentina, LAN has refused to sign a collective agreement to regulate the flight attendants' working conditions.

Juan Carlos Talavera Flores, the press secretary of the SITALANPE union of Peru, has reported that he was detained on Friday, June 20th. He reports that during his detention he was threatened by a security staff from the airport. The security staff introduced himself as being sent by LAN PERU. Mr. Talavera explained that this security staff member told him that LAN Peru was going to bring a legal notary to verify his assumed illegal actions.

Mr. Talvera explains that it was a confusing, frightening and strange action by LAN Peru to intervene with his detention.  The leader of the mechanics union states that the police, and the security personnel of the airport sent by LAN Peru, detained him while he was distributing information to the passengers about delays and cancellations which would occur during the upcoming LAN Peru strike of June 26 and 27.

At the police station, the union leader reports that he was searched unfairly for drugs and incriminatory evidence. At the jail, he was threatened. Hours later he was released without charges.

The release states that Juan Carlos Talavera Flores is a leader in the international solidarity campaign to protect aviation standards in South America.  His detention was made while he was distributing information in the Jorge Chavez Airport in Lima and answering questions from passengers about the upcoming industrial actions and strikes in LAN and TAM airlines.

(Images from file)

FMI: www.itfglobal.org