Norwegian: New statement this afternoon – Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet

When Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos held a press conference in Oslo invited the pilot compartment into new negotiations in the conflict.

During the press conference lamented Kjos “in the strongest terms” the company got into a situation where many passengers have been left stranded.

Night negotiations broke down on Saturday morning and the mediator Nils Dalseide saw no point in continue to mediate between the two parties.

– Parties have notified each other that they stand by their bids that are incompatible with each other, said Dalseide to Norwegian media on Saturday morning. He said the call tone still was both good and at times constructive.

According Kjos was unreasonable demands from the pilot compartment that made an agreement impossible.

– The gulped the whole thing was a requirement of the pilots that we would provide guarantees of 110 working years, it’s more than we have in all of Scandinavia, said Kjos.

The union representatives believe its part, the Norwegian’s management engaged with a form of “Black Peter”.

– We received a bid from Norwegian at 06:22 today with the response time to 12 o’clock We have responded but want real negotiations. What we are unfortunately experiencing is that the Norwegian engaged in trying to set the pilots and Parathyroid in a bad light, rather than negotiate good practice. We have sent a counteroffer to the Norwegian and simultaneously invited to real conversations at 15 o’clock today, says Hans-Erik Skjaeggerud, director of the Norwegian trade union Parat, where the pilot compartment NPU is one of the affiliates, the news agency NTB.

Norwegian strike extended to Finland, state news agency STT referring to Finnish media.

It is the union Aviation Union who have decided to launch a sympathy strike that stops the Norwegian’s ground services in Finland, writes TT.

The strike will begin at three o’clock in the morning and ends five in the afternoon. According to the timetable implements Norwegian approximately 20 flights from Helsinki on Sunday.

Norwegian’s decision earlier this week to divide the pilots of three different companies – a Norwegian, one Danish and one Swedish – were rejected by the Norwegian pilot compartment and the is now unclear what the next step in the conflict.

Norwegian mean that some of the demands made by the Norwegian pilot union side does not affect the company’s Danish and Swedish pilots. The division of the pilots of the three companies would thus be a way to resolve the conflict with the Norwegian pilots separately.

– The Swedish and Danish pilots were the former employees of Norwegian Air Norway and the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now it is possible to have a common overarching collective agreement but some adjustments for each country. If we would not agree with the Norwegian pilots, we avoid the risk that the companies where the Swedish and Danish pilots are going bankrupt, says Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson, Director of Communications at the Norwegian in Sweden.

Are there a real risk of a bankruptcy?

– I certainly hope not.

Holmbergh Jacobson also says that a number of Danish and Swedish pilots have contacted the heads of Norwegian and expressed concern for the situation.

– Those who have contacted us are tired of the tough requirements of the Norwegian pilots down. In Sweden and Denmark have not these extremely favorable pension benefits offered by the Norwegian pilots have but they can not decide anything because it’s NPU (the Norwegian pilot compartment) who negotiate for them.

You mean Swedish and Danish pilots do not mind this distinction?

– I do not know, I have no information about it. I hope that they do not have. This change implies’s no change in their condition.

But it sounds like you think you have a good idea of ​​what the Swedish and Danish pilots think?

– Our management team is in contact with the pilots but in what form, I can not go into. But what I can say that the Swedish and Danish pilots are tired of the conflict.

According Holmbergh Jacobsson, most of Norwegian’s approximately 150 Swedish pilots are members of the NPU but about a third are members of the Swedish Pilots who Norwegian does not have an agreement. She argues that the Swedish pilot association spreading false information about the pilots’ employment conditions that make it difficult for a solution to the conflict.

– Yesterday it was of course a press conference arranged by the Swedish Pilots Ulvskog, where they went out with a bunch of accusations. Ulvskog states among other things that Norwegian has said that the pilots did not have collective agreements and that they are not permanent and that is not true. She does not have an eye on how it relates to our employees.

Swedish Pilots on their side believes that the pilots are united in the conflict and the Norwegian’s actions historically means that there is a great and justifiable distrust of the company.

– The strategy to move the pilots for other companies is slightly Norwegian used before. It was a conflict going on in 2013, but three days before the strike would break out they moved all the pilots to another company. The Norwegian slot was taken by surprise, and the conflict never broke out. It was partly due to the legal situation of the strike became uncertain when the pilots suddenly were employees of another company, says Martin Lindgren, President of the Swedish Pilots.

He believes that Norwegian’s purpose is to weaken compartment and being able to play different employment agencies against each other to squeeze prices.

– It is possible that there are benefits for Norwegian in this division but not for the pilots. Compared with other airlines, such as SAS and Easyjet, one is an employee of the same company, and then it should function also in Norwegian.

As for the argument that a division makes it easier to adapt them to different countries, like Lindgren not think it will last.

– It looks different today in areas such as pensions so it can be arranged within the existing structure.

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