Originally Posted by
GUWonder
This has me wondering if the MSA-side lawyers in Scandinavia even already have a good understanding about how this goes on the labor side in Scandinavia. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still running up the billable hours doing basic research.
This touches on something I was trying to (poorly) communicate in other posts. I wouldn't be surprised if SAS management was heading into this thinking that the bankruptcy proceedings would be able to have some effect on the labour costs. Chapter 11 is such a strange option to choose unless they have such substantial obligations coming due that this was the only way. Without knowing more, what this feels like is that they are trying to end SAS mainline and be able to keep the subsidiaries. It's not about just a labour agreement per se, although they would clearly want to address their biggest expense outside of fuel.
I do suspect they are in for a rude awakening with the US courts, but even in Sweden companies can do 'sneaky' actions. A company I consulted for some years ago managed to get rid of some of their labour costs in Sweden by shutting down their main site in one of the main cities and re-opened it in another main city. They were able to make it so that everyone from the original location had to reapply (with preferential treatment of course) to their existing jobs, but they weren't given any relocation support. Surprisingly, over 80% of the staff went for new jobs elsewhere. I do wonder if SAS is going to try something similar like "SAS International" (like Norwegian did) and place it outside of Scandinavia. I am just musing here of course. But my point here is that even in Sweden where some thing that unions hold ultimate power over everything, there are ways companies can get big changes done.
But what they can get away using the US bankruptcy process will be interesting. They lawyers will make out like bandits in any case.