Solution at TAP is up to management, government – pilots’ union

  • Lusa
  • 24 June 2022

"The solution, today and as always, is also on the side of TAP and necessarily of the government," the Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) stressed this Friday.

The Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) said at the end of a meeting with the minister of infrastructure and housing that the solution to the situation at TAP “is on the side” of the company and the government.

“The solution, today and as always, is also on the side of TAP and necessarily of the government,” the union stressed, according to a statement released this Friday morning, after the meeting with Pedro Nuno Santos on Thursday.

“Consequently, SPAC awaits, as soon as possible, the outcome of this process, towards an agreement that defends all the interests at stake: TAP, pilots, Portuguese taxpayers and their passengers,” it added.

SPAC considered that it “contributed constructively in the search for consensus”, but “will never give up the defence of its members’ interests and working conditions”.

The audience with the minister, Pedro Nuno Santos, served to discuss TAP’s refusal to allow a plenary of workers at the company’s premises.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the union indicated that TAP had refused to host the plenary “based on the alleged risk that essential and urgent services would not be ensured by the pilots if the meeting were to take place.”

On the same day, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, called for “negative situations” to be prevented at TAP, “in a period that is particularly sensitive, when there is an effort to take advantage of the tourist flow” to the country.

TAP had announced on Sunday that it would reduce pilots’ pay by 10% and raise the threshold from which it would apply pay cuts to the remaining workers.

On Monday, the SPAC accused TAP of “manipulation and propaganda” and assured that it would activate “all legal mechanisms” to contest what they say is being “breached”.

The chairwoman of TAP’s executive committee, Christine Ourmières-Widener, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the board wants to “maintain a good relationship with the unions”, adding that she hoped there would be “respect on both sides”.

Asked about a possible strike at TAP, Ourmières-Widener said that the discussion with the unions will continue and that “the management is doing everything to save the company” and wants to do so “with all workers.”