This is what they are arguing about – E24
900 pilots on strike, tens of thousands of passengers affected and gigantic costs are at stake for crisis-stricken SAS. Here you get the pilot conflict explained.
Conflict between the management of SAS and the pilots has been going on for a long time, all the way back to the onset of the corona pandemic.
On the night of Wednesday 29 June, there was a deadline in the mediation between the two fronts. They did not reach an agreement, and set a new deadline for Saturday. If there is no agreement within the time, 900 pilots in Norway, Sweden and Denmark will go on strike. At the same time, SAS has announced a lockout in Denmark and Sweden.
Around 45,000 travelers can be affected every single day.
– SAS has many unions and many different agreements to deal with, so this is complicated. Given that they will not be the only ones, it will be an extensive conflict for SAS, says Kristine Nergaard, research coordinator at Fafo.
Stands together across national borders
It is not easy to keep your tongue directly in your mouth when trying to get an overview of the different parties in the conflict.
On one side, in Norway, are the two unions SAS Norge Flygerforening (SNF) and Norske SAS-flygeres forening (NSF). The former is part of Parat and is led by Jan Levi Skogvang. The latter is an LO association and is led by Roger Klokset.
1 of 3Torstein Bøe / NTB
Together with the Danish Pilot Association (DPF) and the Swedish Pilot Association (SPF), the four associations form the SAS Pilot Group (SPG), which is led by Martin Lindgren.
SPG is united in the negotiations with the employer SAS.
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– Immoral, unethical and unsympathetic
The core of the conflict is related to a number of crises that have affected the airline since March 2020, when the corona pandemic affected Norway and the airlines.
The corona pandemic caused the money to run out of cash for the airlines. SAS had to halve its workforce, and around 560 SAS pilots lost their jobs.
At the same time, SAS set up new subsidiaries, SAS Link and SAS Connect, and announced that dismissed pilots and cabin crew had to apply for jobs again in these companies.
It caused several SAS pilots to rage.
The pilots of the LO association NSF are called immoral, unethical and unsympathetic. The Parat association SNF notified lawsuits against the airline.
Interrupted the negotiations after day one
In the wake of the pandemic, SAS announced in February 2022 an emergency plan that provided for annual cost reductions of 7.5 billion Swedish kroner.
Just over a month later, at the end of March, the airline started negotiations with the pilot associations. The goal was to reach a new collective agreement.
SAS had planned for weeks of negotiations, but already after 24 hours the pilots left the negotiating table.
This upset SAS’s head of negotiations, Marianne Hernæs. She thought the SAS pilots’ demands and negotiation tactics were approaching useless.
According to Fafo researcher Kristine Nergaard, the pilot’s demand was mainly to get the corona-fired pilots back to work.
– The SAS pilots, at least in Norway, were looking for a deal with what the unions thought was a moderate wage settlement and increased flight time, in exchange for solving this by bringing in people who had been laid off or downsized under the corona. When nothing comes of it in the negotiations, the pilot withdrew the offer, Nergaard explains.
She adds that SAS probably disagrees with this description.
Strike notice
On June 9, the conflict escalated further. Then SAS Pilot Group announced a major strike in SAS if they did not reach an agreement with the company.
After the strike warning, the airline hit back hard on the pilots.
– This shows a shockingly poor understanding of reality for what situation SAS is in right now, said press manager Tonje Bjerve Sund in SAS to E24 after the strike warning.
A strike can cost the company 80-100 million kroner a day.
She believed the warning showed that the pilot association chooses conflict over negotiations.
The SAS pilots, for their part, believe that the SAS management has a great responsibility to avoid a possible strike, and that SAS must now choose a collaboration rather than a conflict with its employees.
SPG’s manager Martin Lindgren believes that the SAS management’s company structure breaks with the Scandinavian labor market model and that it is therefore an important battle for all Scandinavian workers.
SPG claims that the SAS pilots are facing demands for a 30 percent reduction in already competitive terms.
Rate for lockout and strike
Since 13 June, the Swedish pilots have been sitting at the negotiating table. They have not yet reached an agreement.
And the conflict has not stopped escalating:
- Thursday, June 23 reported NRK at SAS announces lockout in Sweden. On the day, SAS confirmed that a notice of lockout of Danish pilots has also been issued.
- The aircraft mechanics at SAS, which is affiliated with the Danish trade union, have announced a sympathy strike from 5 July.
- In Norway, it has been sent out on conditional permit notice to all SAS employees.
Fafo researcher Kristine Nergård believes that SAS has sent out the lockout warnings first and foremost to gain control over the course of the conflict.
– SAS has many unions and many different agreements to deal with, so this is complicated. With a lockout in Denmark and Sweden, you get the conflict to run equally in the two countries, with simultaneous expiration and termination, she says.
On Sunday, national broker Mats Wilhelm Ruland and broker Richard Saue traveled to Sweden to assist in the wage settlement.
– The work of reaching an agreement is combined, therefore everyone is present in Sweden, Ruland told E24.
The mediation takes place physically at Svensk Næringsliv in Storgata 19 in Stockholm. Usually the Norwegian side of the mediation has taken place in Norway, but they have merged the negotiations to make the process easier.
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