This Friday, an important general meeting was held called by the 40 dismissed workers and the internal GPS aeroparque commission outsourced by Aerolíneas Argentinas. Hundreds of GPS workers and members of Aerolíneas and Intercargo along with the APA board of directors participated in the assembly in solidarity with those laid off.
The union that brings together GPS workers remains silent and those fired will go on Monday to request a meeting. The attack on GPS is the beginning of the government’s privatization plan towards the flag airline, starting with the most vulnerable sector, the outsourced companies. At the same time that the assembly was held, the Aerolíneas company sent its 12,000 employees the opening of voluntary retirements with extortionate conditions, in many installments and tied to salary increases (which there are none).
The attack on the state-owned Aerolíneas and Intercargo deepens with salaries virtually frozen since November 2023. The layoffs at GPS are then a leap in the Milei government’s policy of layoffs, definancing and downsizing for later privatization, a complaint that has been made for months and which occurs one day after the salary strike of the aeronautical unions (APA, APLA and UPSA) that led to the cancellation of almost 400 flights throughout the country.
The response of the aeronautical workers to these attacks comes from the national strike on January 24, which was a beginning of response to the attacks that this government is carrying out on the entire working class that include increases in transportation, services, food , rents in the air, social works, freezing of retirements and social plans. An attack that shows that for the government the Caste are those below while companies continue making million-dollar profits. Also on the list of sectors indicated by the government is the closure of TELAM, Inadi, Incaa, sectors that serve disabilities, with whom actions and a fight plan will be coordinated. The Omnibus Law that contained the privatization of state companies fell after a major political crisis after 4 days of mobilizations in Congress where Bullrich’s repression was faced. GPS outsourcers were part of those battles. However, the government insists on its plan, the current DNU enables it.
The assemblies and meetings of workers and dismissed workers defined a plan of struggle. Thus begins a battle and a campaign that will be national and witness, No layoffs at GPS and No to the privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas. A huge fighting fund to sustain the fight for the reinstatement of the 40 dismissed workers and their families. The perspective of carrying out actions on the waterfront and within the airport with a proposal for meetings with the aeronautical unions and solidarity sectors to do them together. The demand for a national strike and a plan to fight the CGT and the CTA until the DNU is overturned and the attacks of this government on all workers are stopped. The resistance begins here, and it is until we win.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
