What’s happened?
A strike was called at 5.30am on Friday after a breakdown in mediation talks between SAS, the cabin crew and the airline.
“SAS has not been willing to accommodate any of our demands. We, therefore, had no other choice but to go on strike,” Martinus Røkkum from one of the groups representing cabin staff said.
Talks between the airline, unions and the national mediator broke down on Friday morning after they started on Wednesday.
Some 120 cabin crew from two unions representing staff in Norway were withdrawn during the first wave of the strike. Another 40 staff could join the industrial action over the weekend.
Why has the strike been called?
The strike concerns wages and working conditions. Unions representing the cabin crew have said SAS staff operating out of Norway earn 15 to 30 percent less than the staff at competing airline Norwegian Air Shuttle.
“SAS has rejected all demands and wants the cabin crew to continue working under conditions that do not correspond to Norwegian working life,” Dag-Einar Sivertsen from the the United Federation of Trade Unions (Fellesforundet) said.
Unions have also claimed that SAS cabin crew are the worst paid in the country. New hires at the airline earn a salary of 27,500 kroner per month before tax without additional wages for working weekends, evenings, or nights.
By comparison, the average monthly wage in Norway was 56,360 kroner in 2023, figures from the national data agency Statistics Norway show.
Unions had also demanded two weekends off a month and a daily break away from the passenger terminal.
Meanwhile, the employer organisation NHO Luftfart, the branch of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise representing the aviation industry, said that it had offered improved terms to staff before the strike was called.
“SAS has come a long way both when it comes to wages and working hours,” Erik Lahnstein, managing director of NHO Luftfart, told public broadcaster NRK.
How is traffic being disrupted?
To begin with, the strike has only caused minor disruption.
“A limited number of flights are affected by the strike today (Friday), and we are now working to get as many flights as possible to go as planned. Affected passengers will be notified individually, and we recommend that you check information on sas.no for updates,” SAS said in a press release.
However, the conflict will escalate from Wednesday, August 28th. Both unions involved in the dispute said all cabin crew staff represented by them would be taken out on strike on that date.
This would severely disrupt SAS’s flights to and from Norway.
How long could the strike last?
The employer organisation has said that it will seek a resolution to the conflict “as quickly as possible”.
The airline itself has also said it would work on ending the strike promptly. “We deeply apologise for the inconvenience caused by this conflict, and we are working hard to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Our priority now is to minimise disruption to the traffic programme, and support our affected customers with rebookings to alternative departures and provide as much additional information as possible,” SAS’s press manager, Øystein Schmidt, said to business news publication E24.
The strike comes at a bad time for SAS, which is currently under bankruptcy protection and financial restructuring.
This means that it may not have the wiggle room to deliver the demands of its cabin crew. Furthermore, a high wage settlement would undermine the cost cutting it has promised to investors.
Meanwhile, Røkkum has said that the union is prepared for a protracted strike in order to get the deal its members want.
“I am willing to strike for a long time if necessary, but I hope that SAS will come to its senses,“ he told NRK. The union Røkkum represents has 640 members working at SAS.
Another factor putting pressure on an agreement to be found quickly is that the airline will switch from the Star Alliance group to its competitor, Skyteam, on September 1st.
Schmidt said the airline hoped to reach an agreement that would be attractive for cabin crew and allow the company to remain competitive.
The planned escalation could speed up the process of finding an agreement given how much it would affect the airline’s air traffic to and from Norway.
What are your rights if you are affected?
If the flight you are travelling on is delayed or cancelled due to strike action, you will likely be entitled to compensation.
The compensation could be money for food and other expenses, a new departure on a different flight or accommodation.
Passengers shouldn’t cancel their travel if they fear it will be cancelled, as they will lose the right to a refund.
READ MORE: What are your rights if your flight is delayed or cancelled in Norway?
Member comments