Full Strike Threatened In Aeroflot Labor Feud
By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer A bitter labor dispute is casting a pall over the nation's flagship carrier just as the lucrative summer vacation season is heating up.
A one-hour strike by 300 Aeroflot technicians on Sunday sparked the ire of management, who vowed to sue the technicians' union over the action.
"We will sue," Aeroflot spokesman Alexander Lopukhin said Monday.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/05/15/042.html
criscokid
May 15, 01, 12:24 pm
Information source: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3GAKSURMC&live=true&tagid=ZZZAFZAVA0C&subheading=europe
Flight attendants at Aeroflot, Russia's state-controlled airline, are on Wednesday finishing a ground-breaking form of industrial action that they launched by cyberspace.
The company said that about 500 of its flight attendants had simultaneously gone on a week-long sick leave last week, in a protest against the proposed introduction of individual employment contracts with pay which would be partly performance-related.
The move follows a separate one-hour stoppage by Aeroflot technical staff at Sheremetyevo, Moscow's main international airport, on Sunday, in a company and a country which has not been renowned for labour disputes.
Striking was never easy in Communist times in the Soviet Union in spite of its proletarian rhetoric, and tough labour laws in the civil aviation sector - judged to be of strategic importance - make it equally difficult today for Aeroflot employees to protest against management actions.
Circumventing even the airline's four unions, a group of flight attendants launched a "virtual strike" from the grassroots thanks to a populist internet site (www.steward.narod.ru) which called on colleagues to protest against planned pay changes.
Labour laws with tough procedures would have made a formal strike hard to implement, and risked exposing those who took part to being fired, but the residual Soviet social protection system made it easier for employees to go to doctors seeking medical leave for complaints, including backache, which Aeroflot managers complained were hard to verify.
The strike proved embarrassing for Aeroflot, which has been making considerable efforts to fight off its Soviet image and improve customer service in recent years.
But the company said that all of its flights had continued as normal over the past few days, although with fewer attendants on board.
Aeroflot said it was attempting to replace the Soviet system of flat salaries and fixed daily cost-of-living allowances in foreign destinations with a more complicated system based on hours flown and individual performance.
Some analysts argued that the strike was motivated by some key employees who risked losing their power to determine which attendants flew on the more lucrative foreign flights.
With flight attendants recuperating from their sick leave on Tuesday, requests via the rebel internet site for an interview failed to receive a response.
Threats, Accusations Fly in Aeroflot Labor Feud
Aeroflot unions and management lobbed verbal grenades at one another at consecutive press conferences Wednesday as the divide in their bitter labor dispute grew wider.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/05/17/044.html
Downgrade, S&P Review Add to Aeroflot's Woes
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/05/18/046.html
Court Rules Aeroflot Staff Have No Right To Strike
http://news.airwise.com/stories/2001/05/990878858.html