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NORWEGIAN

Norwegian at risk if strike continues, Kjos warns

Norwegian Air chief executive Bjørn Kjos has warned that the pilot strike which grounded his entire Scandinavian fleet on Wednesday can only continue for a matter of weeks before putting the survival of the company at risk.

Published: 4 March 2015 21:31 CET
Norwegian at risk if strike continues, Kjos warns
Norwegian chief executive Bjørn Kjos meets the press on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: åkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix
“There are countless examples of unions striking companies into bankruptcy,” he warned, as he gave his first press conference since the company’s pilots called a strike on Saturday. 
 
The company’s 2.1 billion Norwegian kroner in equity gave it “survivability”, he said, but the company could “not afford to take losses indefinitely.” 
 
He estimated that the company had the financial firepower to withstand the strike at least into next week. 
 
“We'll probably survive next week too,” he said. “But it will hammer the company, and it will put it back and maybe lead to some routes being shelved.” 
 
Around 700 of the company’s pilots went on strike on Wednesday, grounding all flights within Sweden, Denmark and Norway. 
 
Some international services were also cancelled, including flights between Oslo and Berlin, Hamburg and Amsterdam and from Bergen and Stavanger to London.
 
Kjos warned said if the strike continues into next week it could mean the company repeating the annual loss it posted for 2014. 
 
“It is not easy to turn a large loss to a profit, so we could very quickly find that we are making a loss,” he said. 
 
Kjos said that the fact that around 35,000 passengers had already been affected by the strike was “extremely tragic”, adding that he did not mind upsetting unions by hiring new planes to replace his own grounded fleet if it meant fewer flights being cancelled. 
 
He said that the company could simply not afford to grant pilots  the collective employment agreement they are demanding. 
 
“We must accept that the temperature is high,” he said. “They know perfectly well what is possible. As recently as night we sent over a whole package to them and we have not heard a peep. They want to have control over all flights in and out of Scandinavia. This is of course impossible.” 
 
The head of the Norwegian Pilots’ Union, Halvor Vatnar, insisted that it was in fact the company which was refusing the reengage in negotiations. 
 
“After a clear invitation from our side for a meeting, we received a text late on Tuesday night that was virtually identical to the one we previously rejected,” he told NTB newswire on Wednesday afternoon. “We then sent a reply to the company early on Wednesday morning and we are still waiting for a response many hours later.” 
 
 

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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