LATAM Airlines pilots could go on strike

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The LATAM Airlines Pilots Union (SPL), the largest of this union within the company, voted unanimously on Monday in favor of going on strike after failed negotiations with the company’s management. If successful, it would be the first pilot stoppage in 17 years.

The union is demanding to recover the salary conditions that workers had before the covid-19 pandemic. In 2020 they accepted an emergency plan that caused the dismissal of 240 people and a 30% reduction in their salaries. This, according to the workers, meant savings of more than 28 billion pesos (about US$29.6 million).

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“What we are asking for now is an act of justice that is obvious: to recover the conditions we had before the adjustment, which hit us hard,” said Mario Troncoso, president of the SPL, which groups 313 pilots.

Company sources explained to EFE that from now on “there are four days to request mediation before the Labor Inspectorate, which could last up to five days; in other words, the strike has been voted but is not yet effective”.

Negotiations began in August of this year, although they started a regulated process from September 13 until October 21.

The vote comes a day before Latam Airlines, Latin America’s largest air transport group, exits Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Law, which it filed for in May 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

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