As of 1st April 2014, the European Commission has abandoned its policy to only use International Air Transport Association (IATA) airlines for professional missions and its officials are now obliged to fly low cost airlines. The Commission staff and the European civil aviation employees condemn this approach. They urge the Commission to revise its position […]
The Norwegian airline with the same name is in danger of being thrown into a comprehensive strike by its cabin crew in Norway and Denmark within a short period of time. A strike could affect the company’s flights across much of Europe. The airline, which in 2012 signed the biggest deal ever in the history […]
The fight for better conditions continues, as the ITF-affiliated Icelandic Airline Pilots Association (FIA) carried out the first of five planned strikes last Friday 9 May.
The agreement between employers Icelandair and its pilots expired in November last year. Since then, negotiations around pilots’ pay and conditions have been ongoing. The company has had tremendous success over the last four years, resulting in substantial executive bonuses and an excellent return on investment for shareholders. FIA say it is time the workers saw some financial benefit – but Icelandair management is declining to share.
After Friday’s twelve-hour strike, further actions are planned for 16, 20 and 30 May, with this final action lasting four days. From Friday, pilots at the airline have refused to work overtime until the dispute is settled. 98 percent of Icelandair pilots voted in favor of taking industrial action when the FIA balloted its members on 29 April.
The ITF has offered support, with acting general secretary Steve Cotton this week urging the Icelandic government to intervene.
ITF civil aviation section secretary Gabriel Mocho said: “The FIA has adopted a cooperative stance, and despite having a very strong mandate to carry out industrial action, has still been attempting to reach an agreed settlement with the airline…the pilots’ claims are fair and legitimate, and it would be in the airline’s as well as Iceland’s best interests to open negotiations with the FIA”.
On behalf of 2.5 million transport workers and 250,000 civil aviation workers from 41 European countries and over 230 trade unions, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) expresses its full support to the industrial action currently being in progress at ‘Norwegian Air’ by Parat. The ETF has learnt that Norwegian’s management is not ready to […]
A team of ITF civil aviation representatives built stronger ties with Cuban workers as part of a solidarity mission to the country between 27 April and 2 May. The group included aviation worker representatives from Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Spain and Venezuela. ITF civil aviation section secretary Gabriel Mocho and ITF Americas regional secretary Antonio […]
Qatar’s national carrier became wholly government-owned following last year’s leadership transition, the company’s CEO has said. The airline has previously alluded to the change in Arabic signage around Qatar, and confirmed the move to Doha News last fall. But this is the first time Akbar Al Baker has publicly spoken about the restructuring. Before the […]