The union that represents air traffic controllers, known as the Association of Aircraft Protection and Safety Technicians and Employees (ATEPSA)announced a series of strikes that will last for 18 days in the month of June. These force measures – lasting between three and six hours per day – are carried out in demand of salary increases.
ATEPSA has between 1,000 and 1,200 members spread across the 54 airports in operation in the country., covering both air traffic controllers and other workers in the technical area. Unlike other aeronautical unions that are linked to Aerolíneas Argentinas, ATEPSA affiliates depend on the state company Argentine Air Navigation Company (EANA)created during the administration of Mauricio Macri, currently directed by Agustín Rodríguez Grellet.
The protest plan will begin next Sunday and will extend, with a few days of interruption, until Sunday the 30th. ATEPSA communicated this action through a poster on its website titled “Legitimate measures of union action,” without offering an explicit statement on the reasons for the strike, although its representatives indicated that it was due to the lack of agreement in the salary negotiation that expired in March. .
The air traffic controllers have already carried out two three-hour stoppages of activity during the general strike of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) on May 9, and now they plan to repeat this scheme, since being an activity declared “essential service”, they must guarantee a minimum of 45% of its operation.
Regarding the response of the EANA has not commented on this measure of force.. ATEPSA spokespersons highlighted that this It is the first measure of strength of the union since it assumed the current leadership in May 2022, explaining that it is due to the lack of agreement in the 2023/24 joint agreement, despite the fact that the negotiation period concluded in March.
The strikes will consist of cessations of activity, although staff will remain in their jobs. The impact will vary depending on the day, and may affect only international flights or all flights. However, due to the essential nature of the activity, personnel will continue working even during the force measure on search and rescue, humanitarian, health and State flights.
It is worth remembering that two weeks ago the Association of Aircraft Protection and Safety Technicians and Employees (ATEPSA) was declared in a state of “conflict” due to lack of salary responses from the Argentine Air Navigation Company SE.
ATEPSA reported that it attended the joint meeting called “based on the repeated request” of the union. “in order to achieve the fair salary recomposition of the Paritaria 2023/24, as well as to give a real start to the 2024/25 period.” In this regard, the union entity indicated that “EANA did not make any formal offer, Therefore, from the union entity we declare the conflict”, after the mandate of the National Plenary of Congressional Delegates and base of May 10.
The driving of ATEPSA is headed by Paola Barrita, an air traffic controller and lawyer, daughter of the deceased Jose Barrita, former leader of the Boca Juniors brava group. Barrita won the union elections in April 2022, leading the Multicolor list.
“Paola is a lawyer and air traffic controller at the Ezeiza Area Control Center since 2009., enabled in the BAIRES Terminal. She was the delegate with the most votes in both terms of office. She has actively worked in the ATEPSA Women’s Network, created in 2020, and also as a representative delegate of the colleagues. She was a joint delegate in 2019″, Barrita’s biography describes the aeronautical union.
