The Finnish Air Line Pilots' Association (SLL) is threatening the airline Finnair with a strike of all pilots as of November 16th if a new labour contract is not reached before that.
An overtime ban, applying to all departing Finnair flights from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, began on Saturday morning.
Delegates of the union decided on the stoppage after the Association of Support Service Industries, ASSI and Finnair management rejected a proposal from the union.
The dispute will go before National Conciliator Esa Lonka next week.
A major stumbling block in talks between Finnair and its pilots involves the use of outside labour. “We want Finnair planes to continue to be flown by Finnair pilots”, said SLL chairman Kristian Rintala on Friday.
The pilots’ proposal did contain the possibility of outsourcing flights by two passenger jets. Pay was not an obstacle: the pilots would have agreed to a five per cent pay cut.
The pilots are also boycotting training of outside pilots on their own flights next week.
The latest developments come after a lengthy period of tension between Finnair and its flight crew. There has been no valid labour contract since November 2008.
Now the pilots are proposing the restoration of their old contract for four years.
In February this year, Finnair’s pilots cancelled a threatened strike at the last moment. The National Conciliator at the time, Juhani Salonius submitted a mediation proposal to the two sides which the management side would have accepted. The pilots’ union rejected the proposal, but did not implement their threatened strike.
