Thirty employees of Bolivia’s Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB), the nation’s flagship airline are staging a hunger strike to press for continued state control over the company’s operations.

The protest begun late Friday outside LAB’s headquarters in Cochabamba, while the airline continues normal operations.

The head of the pilots’ union, Richard Vaca, told EFE news agency that the purpose of the protest was to bring about the re-establishment of government control of the airline, after it was halted on Friday.

Government authorities suspended their takeover after the nation’s Constitutional Court upheld an injunction filed by the company to block the intervention, which began on Feb. 9.

In the event the government does not meet their demands, the hunger strikers threatened to expand their protests.

For his part, LAB’s chief financial officer, Carlos De Marchi, told EFE the airline would try to hold talks with the strike leaders to reach an agreement, given that the Constitutional Court will not issue a definitive ruling on the state intervention for at least a month.
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