Austrian Airlines resumes normal operations after the strike by flight crews. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, a total of 400 flights were canceled and 50,000 passengers did not reach their destinations as planned.
Vienna airport was particularly affected. The first flights left there on Good Friday around 1 p.m. As reported, Lufthansa’s subsidiary estimates the financial damage caused by the 36-hour strike at 15 million euros.
Although both parties seem willing to talk, the fronts between the AUAS board and the on-board staff have hardened. The union wants the wage level of the workforce to be brought into line with that of the Lufthansa Group. The company does not comply with this request.
vida boss: “Our arms remain outstretched”
“Our arms remain outstretched,” Vida boss Roman Hebenstreit said on Friday. The union boss was referring to the willingness to talk. It is “permanently communicated that appointments are possible, you just have to say when.” However, Austrian employees must be treated “fairly and equally” within the Lufthansa Group.
According to the AUA, discussions are already underway at various levels and there is currently no new negotiation date. It was previously said that the required wage increases could not be achieved. “If the location becomes uneconomical, the parent company Lufthansa will probably have to reconsider its offer and its route system in the long term,” the director of the umbrella association of the Austrian aviation industry, Peter Malanik, warned on Friday evening.
17 rounds of negotiations without results
Hebenstreit does not rule out a new strike. The staff is already planning a new factory meeting for Thursday, April 4, which could lead to new absences. The KV conflict has been dragging on for several weeks and seventeen rounds of negotiations have not yielded any results so far. Hundreds of flights have been canceled since then.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
