Rio Airport Workers Strike On Eve Of World Cup

Workers at Rio de Janeiro's two airports declared a partial work stoppage beginning at midnight Wednesday, on the eve of the opening match of the World Cup.

Rio's Galeao international airport is expected to be one of the country's busiest during the monthlong soccer tournament. The walkout also would affect Santos Dumont airport, which provides domestic service, including flights to Sao Paulo, where the first World Cup game was being held Thursday.

Unions representing workers at the two airports including check-in counter clerks, baggage handlers and janitorial staff have been seeking for months raises of at least 5.6 percent and special bonuses tied to the World Cup.

A union representative said only 20 percent of workers would walk off the job for 24 hours initially. The official agreed to discuss specifics of the walkout only if not quoted by name because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

A labor court in Rio issued an injunction ordering the unions to maintain staffing at 80 percent of normal levels or face fines of up to $22,400.

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Strike threat to World Cup flights

World Cup flights could be delayed or cancelled due to strike action by baggage, maintenance and check-in workers across south America. Staff at the region's airline group LATAM are threatening industrial action during the major football tournament unless management agree to raise the salaries of mechanics in Peru, who are paid less than elsewhere in the group. LATAM operates LAN airlines in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Colombia, and is represented by TAM in Brazil.

Civil aviation union leaders have warned that World Cup flights could be delayed or cancelled unless LATAM agrees to restart negotiations with Peruvian unions. They have issued a 30-day deadline for talks to restart, or threaten action by Brazilian and other workers over this and their own living wage demands. Unions say this could impact more than 300 international flights to Brazil and an additional 750 domestic flights during the World Cup, due to start on June 12.

"LATAM operates a form of social dumping, paying mechanics in Peru around half than those in Brazil, Argentina and Chile doing the same job," said ITF civil aviation secretary Gabriel Mocho.

"This is unacceptable and LATAM workers have had enough. They do not want to take strike action during the World Cup but if the company's regional management continues to refuse to engage in direct talks with the unions, they feel they have little choice.

"The LATAM union network is growing in size and strength and sees the World Cup as an opportunity to raise awareness of this injustice."

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Air France – KLM strengthens South American network with new operations in Brazil and Panama

Air France has announced a significant increase in services to Central and South America.  On 31 March the airline launched a new three weekly service to Brasilia, its third destination in Brazil after Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and this summer Air France is increasing flight capacity to Panama from three to four weekly flights and to five weekly from 27 October 2014. 

Brasilia: The new route results directly from the exclusive code share agreement between Air France – KLM and Brazilian airline, GOL. Brasilia is now serv
ed by the airline from Paris-Charles de Gaulle flying on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Flights are operated by Boeing 777-200 equipped with 309 seats, with 35 in the Business cabin, 24 in Premium Economy and 250 in Economy.  

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