The TAAG communiqué follows the demonstration promoted on Saturday morning by Sinpropcn, which brought together around 70 crew members at 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, in Luanda.
Stating that this action "does not honor the agreement of the parties", the TAAG administration "expresses its opposition" to the protest and underlines that the agreement signed with the unions in November 2022, established openness to dialogue and internal forums for consultation to resolve the problems.
"Contrary to the commitment to maintain a period of «Social Peace», during which strikes, demonstrations or any social disruption would not be conducted, and without any formal notice, Sinpropcn, after having missed the last consultation meeting, preferred to opt by a manifestation published in the media, online platforms and the press", criticizes the board of directors in the document.
The administration also contests the "derogatory statements about the company's management" that "are not consistent with the truth" and demonstrate "lack of knowledge" on the subject.
Rejecting the "disloyal and harmful behavior" of the union, which translates into non-compliance with signed agreements and "distortion of data on TAAG in public opinion and the press", the administration calls, in the statement, "to return to good relations institutional and dialogue".
According to the management of TAAG, a solution was found for issues related to per diem allowances for navigators consisting of the prepaid visa card, a measure agreed with the unions, in a meeting held on January 12, 2023.
"The company recently issued a communication to all workers in a spirit of total transparency about the new modality in force since February 1, 2023 with the details of how the card works", adds TAAG, referring that wage increases have also been implemented and are other benefits being reviewed.
The administration also repudiated the fact that the crew members had demonstrated publicly using the uniform that "should only be used for flight service and commuting from home to work" and claims to have maintained "an open-door posture, transparency and regular communication with the organization", promoting regular meetings.
Protesters gathered on Saturday morning in front of 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, shouting slogans and displaying protest signs, including "give back our TAAG", "down with harmful management", "no more rented aircraft foreign companies, "give us back our rights" or "out with HiFly".
For the executive secretary of the Provincial Union of Cabin Navigators (Sinpropcn), the entity that convened the demonstration, it is at stake the non-compliance of the administration in the face of the workers' claims and the lack of consultation.
"This administration ignores us", said Ondina Costa, regretting that the company only reacts to public protests and using communications that should be addressed to workers and not to public opinion, which she considered a way of "disguising everything they have been doing".
She also underlined that the agreements signed with the company are only being partially fulfilled.
With regard to per diem allowances and the use of cards, she indicated that the situation has worsened, as crew members are not receiving advance payments.
"Many times the crew members arrive at their destination and do not have the money deposited on the cards", said Ondina Costa, also questioning that the cards are in the name of a single person, "in such a way that none of the crew members has access to the card extracts, there is no total balance of what each one spends and what is deposited".
She underlined that the fact that the carrier was led by a foreigner, the Spaniard Eduardo Fairen Soria (executive chairman), or the use of aircraft leasing was not at issue, but he contested that TAAG crew members were not being trained to work in the HiFly planes (Portuguese airline) as promised.
"HIFly has been here for about a year and the TAAG crew should have already been trained to be able to operate these planes, so that we can move from a 'wet leasing' contract (lease of aircraft with crew) to 'dry leasing' (no crew)", she complained.
The trade union official stressed that they are not against the administration, but against its management, criticizing the lack of consultation with workers: "We demand our jobs, it's time for our crew to be qualified to fly on any plane that be rented by TAAG, especially HiFly".
She also admits to moving towards a strike and underlined that the workers will maintain the protests until they see their demands met.
