Finnair unions do not want to renegotiate labour contracts

CEO offers to cut own salary by ten per cent

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The management of the Finnish airline Finnair met with representatives of all seven labour unions representing the company’s various employee groups on Monday to discuss calls for pay cuts. The meeting was the first since the company last week put forward three options to achieve savings of EUR 25 million in personnel costs.
      Both sides said that the talks moved forward in a positive spirit. The next meeting will be on Tuesday next week.
      Before the meeting with management, the unions conferred among themselves. It is apparent that the options put forward by the managers, under which staff had a choice between a temporary pay cut and personnel reductions will not be accepted by the staff without reservations.
      Juha Haapasaari, chairman of the largest union involved, the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU), which represents nearly 3,000 Finnair employees, was not at Monday’s talks because he works for the union, and not for Finnair. However, he said that the strong view of the IAU is that decisions should be sought on the basis of the existing labour contract.
      The two first options in Finnair’s proposal, a direct cut of pay by five per cent, or the freezing of pay hikes that had been agreed upon, do not meet this requirement. The third, the cutting of up to 400 jobs, might be in accordance with the contract, if it can be shown that there are sound economic reasons. However, that is the last option both for employees, and for the management, according to CEO Jukka Heinonen.
     
The shop steward of IAU members of Finnair Technical Services, Esa Suokas, took part in Monday’s negotiations. He also felt that the atmosphere at the discussions was positive, but he was not quite convinced at how crisis-conscious Finnair employees are and how ready they are to accept exceptional cost-cutting measures.
      At the discussions, CEO Heinonen tried to focus on the situation of the company, which is suffering from increasing profitability problems, and the need for sacrifice by promising to cut his own pay by ten per cent, which is double the percentage that the employees are being asked to accept.
      Finnair personnel director Anssi Komulainen says that he can understand the desire of the employees to find places where costs can be cut without interfering with existing contracts. Such solutions are now being sought in both camps.
      “From our point of view it is most important that the goal of saving EUR 25 million will hold”, Komulainen says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair employees question need for deep cost cuts (8.9.2008)
  Finnair presents personnel with hard choice (5.9.2008)

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