TAP employees have approved a motion against the recent sale of the state airline to the private company, Gateway.
According to José Augusto of the workers’ committee, the motion requesting the reversal of the TAP sale was approved by a large majority and pointed to "some irregularities" in the privatisation process.
The main gripe was the hasty sale last Thursday night of the state’s 61% share of TAP which was authorised by a stand-in government. The committee considers that this "does not meet the requirements of European legislation."
Around 300 TAP employees met for two and a half hours in a session attended by representatives of the Portuguese Communist Party, the Left Bloc and the Greens, all of whom advocate the reversal of the company's privatisation, as does the CGTP union and anti-privatisation organisation, Associação Peço a Palavra
The secretary general of the CGTP, Arménio Carlos said there had been "a broad consensus against the privatisation" adding that the union considered that the sale "is not a closed process" and hoped that now that "the parties who held the majority in parliament carried out the promise to reverse the deal.”
On the news of Neeleman's plans to turn TAP in Europe into a low-cost competitior, Carlos said that 'TAP is not Ryanair.'
On Thursday of last week, state holding company Parpública announced the signing of the deal to sell its 61% stake in TAP to Gateway, owned by Humberto Pedrosa and David Neeleman.
Arménio Carlos further accused the government of 'manipulating data and lying,' in its rush to sell off TAP before the political situation impasse has been resolved and that it the reason for the hasty sale indeed was the immenent collapse of the airline, then who was responsible for leading TAP to this state of affairs?
The answer of course is Francisco Pinto, the man who incredibly has been appointed to run the new TAP under Gateway's ownership and under whose leadersip TAP had floundered, costing the taxpayer over €1 billion in accumulated losses for a return of €10 million now it has been sold.
