WEDNESDAY NIGHT: FINNAIR STRIKE TO BEGIN AT 04:00 ON THURSDAY MORNING

Attempts to minimise disruption to EU summit in Lahti

print this

WEDNESDAY EVENING UPDATE, 22:00
     
Finnair cabin crew will be going on strike from 04:00 on Thursday morning.
      The National Conciliator Juhani Salonius, who has been attempting to broker a settlement between the Flight Attendants' Union SLSY and Finnair, said that talks would continue on Thursday afternoon at 13:00.
      Despite the presence and encouragement of several heavyweight names from the Finnish labour market, the two sides made no progress towards a compromise during Wednesday's talks.
     
The strike will ground most of the national carrier's scheduled flights, with long-haul and domestic departures particularly badly hit. All seven departures to Asian destinations have been cancelled, along with the flight to New York.
      Some short-haul European scheduled flights will be operating, though with adjusted timetables. Holiday leisure flights will also be operational, though again with some scheduling changes.
     
It is not believed the strike  - if it continues into Friday - will have any serious impact on the informal EU summit in Lahti, as most delegations will be using private executive jets. Arrangements are being made with other code-sharing partner airlines to lay on additional flights from Brussels.
      Further details from the Finnair website, from travel agencies, or by calling Finnair on 0600 140 140.
     
     
EARLIER UPDATE:
     
     
Negotiations aimed at averting a threatened strike by cabin crew of the Finnish national airline Finnair early Thursday morning continued into Wednesday evening in the office of the National Conciliator.
      A proposal to postpone the start of the strike was rejected by the union side. The Finnish government is concerned that a stoppage of Finnair flights could have a negative effect on Friday's unofficial European Union summit in Lahti.
      Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said that he had been in contact with the National Conciliator. He also appealed to the parties to the dispute to take the summit into consideration.
      If no settlement is reached, most Finnair passenger traffic would stop on Thursday morning. Finnair has said that it expects to manage to fly holiday charter flights in spite of the stoppage. Possible industrial action would affect about 1,700 employees as of 4:00 AM.
     
The Finnish Flight Attendants’ Union SLSY announced the strike on Tuesday after talks with Finnair broke down. Finnair announced on Tuesday afternoon that it would hire 500 flight attendants according to contract terms of its Estonian subsidiary, Aero Airlines, which pays its cabin staff about 30 percent less than Finnair.
      The Finnish government has appealed to the two sides to settle the dispute.
     
SLSY chairman Mauri Koskenniemi accused Finnair of violating the current labour contract by trying to sharply reduce employees’ pay.
      Koskenniemi wants the Ministry of Transport and Communications to see to it that the state-owned Finnair cancels the plans. The union wants a single labour contract to cover all of Finnair.
      Most SLSY members are under contract with Finnair. Employees of smaller Finnish-based airlines are working under terms of a seperate national contract, in which pay is about 30 percent lower than those of the separate contract with Finnair. Finnair now feels that the higher labour costs put it at a competitive disadvantage.
     
Finnair sees the planned strike as an illegal industrial action, because it would take place while a valid labour contract is in force. The sides agreed in late August that there would be no industrial action until early November.
     
On the employees’ side lower pay across the board is seen to be Finnair’s ultimate goal - even though the airline says that none of the present employees would undergo any pay cuts.
      "As Finnair does not take advantage of the possibilities of cost-cutting offered by the present contract, everything suggests that instead of seeking real savings, the employers are using the cost cutting programme as an excuse to permanently wreck Finnair’s labour contract."
      Koskenniemi adds that cost-cutting measures are not justified in a situation in which Finnair is hiring more cabin staff. He also feels that neither the price of fuel nor the increase in long-haul traffic are valid reasons for changing the contract.
      "We have proposed new cost-cutting measures, whose impact on costs is the ten million euros demanded by Finnair. The company did not want these measures to be brought to the negotiating table."
     
Finnair CEO Jukka Hienonen says that the company wants to bring its labour costs down to the same level as its domestic competitors.
      To achieve this, Finnair wants to hire its new employees on the terms of the national contract of Aero.
      A separate protocol of the current labour contract gives Finnair flight crews about 30 percent more pay than those of Blue1 and AirFinland.
      Hienonen notes that Finnair cabin crew earn an average EUR 40,850 a year, in addition to which employees get an average EUR 4,500 in per diems. The average weekly working week comprises 25 hours.
     
Finnair says it needs new staff to cover its growing Asian services and European connections. He predicts that by 2011, Finnair’s Asian services could lead to the creation of 2,000 new jobs.
     
The Finnish government issued an appeal on Tuesday night to avert a strike. The initiative for the appeal was made by Susanna Huovinen (SDP), the Minister of Transport and Communications.
      A top ministry official said in the morning that both Finnair and the union promised to make serious efforts to seek a resolution to the dispute. However, no guarantees were forthcoming.
      The strike could cause problems for the unofficial EU summit in Lahti on Friday.
      Finnair is posting information on developments in the situation on its website (see link).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair flight attendants reject pay cut for new cabin staff (25.8.2006)
  Finnair to cut pay for new cabin crew (24.8.2006)
  Finnair to start negotiations on cutting 670 jobs to save EUR 80 million a year (8.5.2006)
  Union says Finnair Asian flight attendants still underpaid (24.1.2006)
  Finnair to hire 1,300 new pilots and cabin staff in years ahead (8.1.2006)

Links:
  Finnair website: "FINNAIR PREPARING FOR ILLEGAL STRIKE"

Helsingin Sanomat