Strike threat to World Cup flights
World Cup flights could be delayed or cancelled due to strike action by baggage, maintenance and check-in workers across south America.
Staff at the region’s airline group LATAM are threatening industrial action during the major football tournament unless management agree to raise the salaries of mechanics in Peru, who are paid less than elsewhere in the group.
LATAM operates LAN airlines in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Colombia, and is represented by TAM in Brazil.
Civil aviation union leaders have warned that World Cup flights could be delayed or cancelled unless LATAM agrees to restart negotiations with Peruvian unions.
They have issued a 30-day deadline for talks to restart, or threaten action by Brazilian and other workers over this and their own living wage demands.
Unions say this could impact more than 300 international flights to Brazil and an additional 750 domestic flights during the World Cup, due to start on June 12.
"LATAM operates a form of social dumping, paying mechanics in Peru around half than those in Brazil, Argentina and Chile doing the same job," said ITF civil aviation secretary Gabriel Mocho.
"This is unacceptable and LATAM workers have had enough. They do not want to take strike action during the World Cup but if the company’s regional management continues to refuse to engage in direct talks with the unions, they feel they have little choice.
"The LATAM union network is growing in size and strength and sees the World Cup as an opportunity to raise awareness of this injustice."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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