SAS pilots on strike: “really bad news”
SAS pilots go on strike, confirms the company’s CEO Anko van der Werff. The strike, which he calls “shameful”, takes effect immediately. The Swedish Pilot Association, for its part, believes that SAS did not want to agree.
Shortly after 12 noon on Monday, SAS CEO Anko van der Werff announced that the parties had not agreed and that the pilots would therefore go on strike:
– This is really, really bad news. We are devastated, he says to the media gathered outside Näringslivets hus in central Stockholm.
The strike means that planes flown by about 900 SAS-employed pilots are now canceled. Around 30,000 passengers per day are affected, according to SAS.
“Strike culture”
According to Anko van der Werff, who is noticeably upset, the strike makes it difficult for the company to find investors and puts the entire company’s future at stake.
– What we have here is a strike culture. This is the sixth strike in the last twelve years. How in the world are we going to succeed in finding investors if it continues like this, he says.
He further calls the strike “shameful” and regrets that it occurs during what he believes is the most intense period for the company of two and a half years.
SAS’s management has previously decided on a rescue plan where the company will take in SEK 9.5 billion.
“Serious situation”
According to SAS’s chief negotiator Marianne Hernæs, the strike will begin immediately, but the pilots who are out flying will not go on strike until they have arrived at their home base.
– This is a very, very serious situation for SAS, she says.
“Do not want to agree”
Martin Lindgren, chairman of the SAS section at the Swedish Pilot Association, states that the union did not consider itself to have any other alternative than a strike.
– We do not believe that we choose this without SAS forcing us, he says.
The pilots have, according to the union, been prepared to make “significant concessions”. Martin Lindgren does not want to go into any details in the negotiations, other than that they did not reach a goal.
– We blame it on SAS. They do not want to agree but want a strike, he says.
He states that the union is ready to resume negotiations “when they can”, but that the focus now is on taking care of the members.
The employers ‘organization Swedish Aviation Industry, in turn, believes that the pilots’ actions are “deeply irresponsible” and that the strike is bad for everyone involved:
“We are now entering an uncontrolled event that could have serious consequences for Swedish society and the Swedish business community,” says CEO Marcus Dahlsten in a comment.
“Follows the situation”
Minister of Trade and Industry Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (S), who in early June clarified that the state will not contribute more money to SAS, says in a written comment to TT that the state as a shareholder in SAS “follows the situation closely”.
“Otherwise, we have no comments, it is the social partners who are responsible,” writes Thorwaldsson.
In addition to the Danish and Swedish governments, the Wallenberg family is also larger in SAS. In a comment to TT, a spokesperson for the family writes:
“Of course, Wallenberg Investments deeply regrets that there will now be a strike, but refers to the parties to comment on this further.”
Tough negotiations
Negotiations between the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pilot associations and SAS’s management have been ongoing since November last year.
The pilot union believes that SAS has violated the right to re-employment contained in the collective agreement, by hiring replacements via staffing companies instead of re-employing former employees.
Facts: Canceled flights
The strike is expected to lead to the cancellation of approximately 50 percent of all SAS flights and will affect approximately 30,000 passengers per day.
The flights operated by SAS Link, SAS Connect and SAS’s external partners are not affected by the strike.
SAS offers rebooking of flights that are affected, but states that the possibility of rebooking customers for equivalent flights will be very limited.
Customers are also offered to either accept a refund, or rebook their ticket to a later date or to arrange alternative travel methods themselves and apply for compensation from SAS.
Source: SAS
Facts: That is why the SAS pilots are on strike
The pilots at SAS had previously announced a strike from 29 June because the parties had not been able to agree on a new collective agreement.
According to the Swedish Pilot Association, the strike is about SAS not re-employing the 560 pilots notified during the pandemic and that the airline instead uses pilots from the subsidiaries SAS Link and SAS Connect, which act as staffing companies.
The pilot union then believes that SAS has violated the right to re-employment contained in the collective agreement as the airline has hired replacements instead of previous employees.
Negotiations between the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pilot associations and SAS’s management have been ongoing since November last year, but the parties have not been able to reach an agreement. The pilots’ old collective agreement expired at the end of March.
On June 9, the pilot unions submitted their strike notice to the Mediation Institute. The mediation has been going on since 13 June.
