Long weekend airport strike suspended as government orders pay negotiation

The airport strike planned for Wednesday through Tuesday was suspended after the government ordered union State Workers Association (ATE, by its Spanish initials) and commercial aviation agency ANAC to enter a 15-day pay negotiation period. During this interval, officially called a mandatory conciliation, neither party can carry out new measures affecting the labor situation, meaning that strikes are left without effect. The protest by the state workers was expected to cause delays and cancellations between March 18 and 24, coinciding with a four-day weekend ahead of the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, on Tuesday. The measure would have affected most commercial airports in Argentina and was scheduled to be carried out during the mornings and evenings, affecting commercial flights only. ATE had announced the strike on March 12 to protest the fact that the National Civil Aviation Administration, a government agency, has not paid a salary increase agreed earlier this year. Laborers represented by ATE include airport healthcare workers, firefighters, inspectors, administrative staff and land control personnel. Once again, and despite the recurring violations of the government, we have decided to comply with the mandatory conciliation period, said ATE head Rodolfo Aguiar in an X post on Tuesday. Aguiar said that the fact that a hearing to discuss the situation has not been scheduled is a clear sign that they do not care about dialogue but rather about stopping the strike. The ATE leader said that they will resume their protest measures and escalate them if no agreement is reached in the coming days, as they have already exhausted all legal and administrative avenues to demand the pay increase. ATE had already announced strikes in recent months but suspended them over mandatory conciliations dictated by the government.