ATE postpones morning airport strike but keeps evening action

Argentina’s Association of State Workers postponed a planned strike at the country’s airports just as the first action was due to begin on Thursday morning. The union had scheduled the stoppage from 9 a.m. to noon at 27 airports, but retained a second strike window from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and further action the following day.

The government had ordered ATE to comply with regulations requiring 75% of services during the announced protests. The union’s action is still expected to bring assemblies, demonstrations and mobilizations to airports, potentially causing delays, flight changes and cancellations. During the designated hours, only medical, humanitarian, organ-transfer and official flights will be guaranteed.

Passengers traveling during the affected periods were advised to contact their airlines to confirm how services would operate and whether they needed to rebook. ATE Secretary-General Rodolfo Aguiar rejected responsibility for any disruption, saying, “If delays or cancellations occur, it will not be the workers’ fault.” He said the union had notified the government early enough for it to respond to its demands, but that had not happened.

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If delays or cancellations occur, it will not be the workers’ fault. We announced the industrial action sufficiently in advance so that the government could respond to each of our demands, and that has not happened so far.

ATE said the strike followed failures to pay additional compensation since January and a lack of official responses to demands for better working conditions. Aguiar also said the government had failed to honor wage agreements, reduced funding for airport operational and inspection areas, and left workers with salaries that no longer matched their responsibilities.

At Buenos Aires’ Jorge Newbery Airport, a group of workers separately protested the dismissal of employees at an outsourced company. Luciano Corradi, one of those affected, said he had been dismissed 20 days earlier while serving as a workers’ delegate. He accused the company of targeting the union and pursuing mass layoffs, and said the dismissed workers were demanding reinstatement.

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For 20 days, Grupo GPS has been dismissing me because I was a delegate for my colleagues. It seeks to attack the organization in order to move forward with mass layoffs and make work more precarious.