National Conciliator presents mediation proposal for Finnair pilots

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In the early hours of Friday morning, National Conciliator Esa Lonka presented a proposal for a settlement relating to the looming pilots’ strike at the national airline Finnair.
     
Lonka said that the two parties involved in the conflict will have to decide whether or not they accept the offer by 15.00 on Saturday afternoon. If the pilots turn down the poposal, the threatened strike will start on Monday morning at 00:01.
      The arbitration talks were difficult, lasting from Thursday morning until the early hours of Friday.
      The employer’s representatives were satisfied with the settlement proposal, recommending the company management to accept the offer.
      However, the Finnish Air Line Pilots' Association (SLL) had a more cautious attitude. Kristian Rintala, the new President of the union, did not say whether or not he intended to recommend accepting the proposal to the SLL council.
      Rintala stressed that the use of outside labour is an extremely difficult issue for pilots.
      ”It is difficult to say what will happen”, Rintala said.
      The planned strike would paralyse Finnair’s air traffic almost entirely , as all the company’s more than 750 pilots would be on strike.
     
The most important factor complicating the negotiations has been Finnair’s plan to use other airlines’ pilots with lower salaries on its flights to make up for financial losses.
      According to Finnair’s pilots, the scheme would jeopardise their jobs. In fact, a number of Finnair’s own pilots have already been laid off even in 2009.
      The pilots insist on having a provision recorded in a new collective agreement stating that no operations of Finnair’s aircraft could be outsourced without their permission or without negotiating the plan first with them.
      The contents of the offered contract were not revealed on Friday morning.
     
The pilots have not had a valid collective agreement since November 2008. Last winter, 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.
      At the same time, salaries have not been a major issue in the negotiations.
      The pilots have even been willing to accept a 5% reduction in their salaries.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair pilots threaten strike in mid-November (2.11.2009)
  Finnair to start outsourcing domestic flights this autumn (7.9.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Air Line Pilots´ Association

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