Such action was taken by around ten workers of the trade union called Aviation Technical Personnel Association (APTA, for its acronym in Spanish) at the Aeroparque airport in the City of Buenos Aires.
June 15, 2018 (9AM) – Today at 7 AM, around ten workers unionized with APTA held an assembly without prior notice. They interrupted their work and have already caused delays of more than one hour in at least 10 flights of the Aerolíneas Argentinas group.
No grounds were provided for this action and, until yesterday, there was a negotiating table permanently available for the union led by Ricardo Cirielli.
The workers belong to the Clearance sector: they control flight schedules and the loading of each airplane. In accordance with certain regulations, in Argentina clearance is performed at the place of departure, while in other countries it may be performed remotely. This is why only around ten people can block the work of 12,500 employees of Aerolíneas and caused delays to thousands of passengers.
The company has not been given any reason or explanation for the industrial action and it will file a claim with the Ministry of Labor and Employment.
Yesterday another aviation trade union, the Aviation Personnel Association (APA), also called an assembly in order to delay flights. This situation was later rectified by the company. Two weeks ago, the pilots unionized with the Airline Pilots Association (APLA) adopted the same kind of measures.
Aerolíneas Argentinas is working in trying to restore their services back to normal and relocate all passengers to other flights departing today.