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More flyers stranded as pilot strike talks stall

A further 20,000 Norwegian Air passengers across Scandinavia are to have their flights disrupted on Tuesday, after hopes of a deal to end the ten-day pilot strike ended in disappointment on Monday.

Published: 9 March 2015 21:56 CET

More flyers stranded as pilot strike talks stall

Photo: Rune Feldt Rasmussen/Scanpix

The two sides were keeping commentary in the media to a minimum to avoid disrupting negotiations but Anne-Sissel Skånvik, Norwegian Air’s spokeswoman revealed on Monday night that the company had made a new proposal to the pilots' unions.

Early on Tuesday morning, Arve Sigmundstad, press officer for the Parat Union stressed that there was "nothing new" in the proposal which would end the deadlock.

On Monday, Norwegian media were reporting that the two sides were close to a solution, but those hopes were dashed by the late afternoon as the two sides hit deadlock on the remaining issues after which the company angered unions by attempting to switch from two-way talks to a formal arbitration process.

“We are still sitting in talks with the company, and this initiative could harm the negotiation progress,” Hans-Erik Skjæggerud, leader of the Parat Union complained after the move, arguing that by talking of arbitration Norwegian was implying that it wrongly viewed the talks as primarily about wages.

“The conflict cannot be solved through arbitration,” he said.

The strike has affected at least 150,000 passengers since it began on Saturday February 28th, after three months of futile talks broke down.

More than 700 pilots working for the company’s Norwegian Air Norway subsidiary have joined the strike, and the company has temporarily laid off some 800 cabin crew without pay.

Skånvik described Parat’s rejection of the request for arbitration as “regrettable”.

The pilots want better job security and standardized salary terms for all pilots employed by the various Scandinavian subsidiaries of Norwegian.

The company, which in 2014 suffered its first loss in eight years, is looking to reduce operating costs as well as pilots' benefits.

All flights within Norway and Sweden will be cancelled on Tuesday, although flights between Scandinavian capitals, which have barely been operating since the strike began, appear to be running as usual.

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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