OSLO: SAS informs that the negotiations in relation to a new agreement with the Norwegian pilot union, NSF, was broken at 5.30am. SAS is therefore subject to an industrial action, but which only to a limited extent affects air traffic in Norway.
Initially, six pilots have been taken out on strike from Thursday 21 May. After several months of negotiations, and subsequent mediation, SAS’ proposal for a new collective bargain agreement unfortunately was rejected by NSF. This was an agreement that contained good Scandinavian wages and working conditions, with reduced complexity compared with the old agreement that has been renegotiated for over 50 years.
SAS has already reached agreement on a new modern collective bargain agreement with two of the other pilot unions SNF and DPF. These represent over half of SAS’ pilots. In Sweden, negotiations are ongoing with SPF on overtime, with deadline at 8.00am on 21 May.
I sincerely regret that we have not reached an agreement in relation to a new collective bargain agreement with NSF which would ensure SAS’ competitiveness required in today’s aviation, says Rickard Gustafson, SAS CEO. We will continue to work intensively to ensure that SAS will be a competitive company that makes it possible to invest in products and services for our customers. SAS will do what it can to make the strike as short as possible.
