PORTUGAL’S NATIONAL carrier TAP looks set to be dogged by continuing strikes for the rest of June and July if deals over working hours and pay cannot be brokered with unions.
The decision to continue industrial action was taken by staff representatives last week following a strike involving 500 workers who gathered outside the troubled airline’s headquarters.
At the root of the issue are salary reviews, which the company has said it cannot honour if it is to meet its financial and budgetary targets for 2008.
The airline administration is now facing its worst round of strikes since Fernando Pinto took over as Managing Director in 2000.
Despite the stoppages provoked by TAP ground staff, the summer of discontent is likely to get even hotter with the threat of an airline pilots’ strike hanging over the company which has been struggling to balance its books in the face of stiff competition from other major international carriers, low cost operators and soaring fuel prices.
The threat of cancelled flights has lead Fernando Pinto to affirm that “no disruptions are foreseen to TAP services and operations”.
Walkouts
TAP’s work force, which was awarded a performance prize in 2007 and is exempt from social security contributions, say through their union representatives that if their pre-agreed salary demands are not honoured they will stage walkouts on July 7, 13, 21 and 27.
“In the meantime, we will meet to analyse the situation,” said José Simão, of the Aviation and Airports Workers’ Union, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Aviação e Aeroportos.
“TAP is not going to make any salary reviews and can’t for the present, given the economic climate made worse by escalating oil prices,” said a TAP spokesman.
Last week, TAP announced that if the price of a barrel of crude continued at around UShttp://www.40, its fuel bill would soar to 750 million euros by the end of the year.
Taking into account that the government has taxed the company on 64 million euros worth of profits this year, “it is completely unrealistic to talk about salary increases because we’re half way through the year and the signs so far, economically speaking, aren’t good,” added the spokesman.
Fernando Pinto did, however, state that plans to cut the workforce would be deferred until 2009.
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