The general plenary meeting of workers on the privatization of the TAR is scheduled for the 15th

The TAP Task Force (CT) convened a general plenary meeting on Wednesday on the privatization it opposes, followed by a march to the airport, its coordinator Cristina Carrillo said this Friday.

“For a public TAR in the service of the country and the Portuguese, inside and out” is the motto of the “General Plenary Meeting of the Workers, which will be held on February 15 at 15:00, followed by a march to the airport,” the CT coordinator announced at a press conference at the entrance to airline premises, next to Lisbon airport.

“Protection and improvement of working conditions” will also be discussed.

“We need to evaluate what is happening in the company, now that privatization is on the table. The TAP Working Commission has always defended the public TAP, and therefore we are going to talk about this topic, discuss it with the workers and identify ways to try to avoid this privatization”, said Cristina Carrillo.

For CT, the goal of the restructuring plan that the airline is undergoing is to make it viable and profitable, and if this is achieved through public administration, there is no need for privatization.

When asked about the status of the privatization process, the CT coordinator said that she had not yet received information from the company’s management.

Regarding the news published this Friday by Expresso that the “hub” (communication center) in Lisbon will not be secured by privatization, Cristina Carrillo said she was not surprised.

“If the company is bought, and what was said [na comunicação social] is that it will be a multinational airline that has its own “hubs” in the place where it operates, and, for example, if it is IAG [Iberia-British Airways]there is Barcelona here, there is Madrid in the neighborhood, and, therefore, the “hub” can be directed to one of these cities, ”said Cristina Carrillo.

For KT, this is a situation that “will definitely affect the country’s economy.”

TAP’s representative body of workers fears that privatization will exacerbate the “loss of labor and social rights” that workers already face after a restructuring plan involving layoffs and wage cuts.

“Intention, with abbreviations and denunciations of AE [acordos de empresa] is to reduce the cost of workers, so that privatization is more pleasant, say, for those who buy,” the coordinator defended, stressing that even the “disappearance of TAP” could be at stake.

Cristina Carrillo also stated that “all attempts to privatize TAP have always ended in failure, and if it were not for government assistance, TAP would have disappeared long ago.”