Baggage backlog at Helsinki-Vantaa will take several days to clear

Walkout by ground staff and baggage handlers caused chaos and cancelled flights

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A walkout by ground staff of the Finnish national airline Finnair continues today, Wednesday. The protest by hundreds of the airline’s ground personnel forced Finnair to cancel flights on Tuesday, as about 500 customer service baggage handling staff did not show up for work.
      Some 35 round-trip flights were cancelled on Tuesday, affecting 4,000 passengers, and a further 17 flights were cancelled on Wednesday. About 6,000 pieces of luggage waited patiently for their rather less patient owners at the arrivals hall of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on Tuesday evening.
      Mail deliveries between the south and north of Finland have also been delayed.
      The action is not affecting baggage handling or other services of other airlines.
     
The Finnish Aviation Union IAU started its action already on Monday when ground staff were informed that they would be outsourced to the human resources company Barona.
      On Tuesday the IAU said that it had put forward a proposal to postpone the transfer. Finnair said that this would not be possible, because the deal was set on Monday. Negotiations with Barona are to continue on Wednesday.
      IAU President Juhani Haapasaari says that negotiations are needed over the role of staff in working hour arrangements. About 500 Finnair baggage staff and customer service employees are being shifted to Barona.
     
Passenger check-in services were nearly normal on Tuesday, as missing personnel were replaced by managerial staff. Managers also dealt with some of the baggage handling work.
      However, managers were not able to perform certain tasks, such as driving vehicles at the airport, which require special permits.
     
Ground staff were angered that their jobs were outsourced at just one day’s notice.
      The employees were promised that they would keep their jobs and their pay.
      However, as they are no longer to be employed directly by Finnair, they are losing certain Finnair perks, such as free plane tickets, and some other company benefits.
      “More than losing economic benefits, we are angered that we have felt that we are part of Finnair. We have enthusiastically worked to develop practices of what has been named to be the best Asian connection. It is based on functioning transfer of luggage”, says ground staff shop steward Pekka Kähönen on Tuesday.
     
Staff from Barona’s head offices came to the airport, giving advice to passengers, and recommending that they take as little checked luggage with them as possible.
      A group of businessmen en route to St. Petersburg stayed in Helsinki. “There’s no point in continuing, if we have no luggage”, they huffed.
      Masaki Oda was en route from Frankfurt to Tokyo. He was actually quite pleased at the prospect that he would not have to deal with his ski jumping equipment himself, and that his luggage would be brought to his home later.
      Finnair has warned that clearing the luggage log-jam could take several days.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair outsources 630 jobs in ground handling and cargo terminal operations (1.12.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Aviation Union IAU
  Finnair: Walkout at Helsinki-Vantaa airport disrupts Finnair flight traffic
  Barona

Helsingin Sanomat