The backlog of baggage at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was cleared up during the weekend.
“Traffic has decreased after the week of Epiphany”, said Taneli Hassinen, Finnair’s Vice President of Financial Communications and Investor Relations said on Saturday.
The worst backlogs emerged in late November and early December in connection with an employee walkout. At that time, more than 10,000 pieces of luggage piled up at the airport. Finnair’s baggage handlers were angry that the airline had sold the baggage services of its subsidiary Northport to the human resources company Barona.
“The main reasons for the backlog during Christmas and New Year were the Christmas holiday and the problems caused by severe weather. Also affecting the situation was that our former employees who had been transferred to Barona as employees, refused to work overtime.”
A working group headed by former National Conciliator Juhani Salonius drew up an agreement on procedures with the approximately 500 baggage handlers on Barona’s payroll.
The handlers remain unhappy with being outsourced, and with the contract that was hammered out, says shop steward Pekka Kähkönen.
“We have not yet received an answer from Finnair to our question on how outsourcing improves profitability.”
The working group recommended continued negotiations, but the group also agreed on a number of details. The aim is to initiate negotiations on the hiring of part-time employees for peak times of air travel.
