GUWonder

When the Swedish mediator for the negotiations dropped out of involvement before the weekend, did you take that as a sign that this was already close to a done deal to avoid a strike and there were only some narrow differences left to paper over?

I really couldn’t believe that they would be working hard to come to a deal the entire time between 2am and 5am on Saturday morning.

Fredrik74

Yes, if the mediator is leaving it should be a good sign.

At the very least SAS should now stay afloat until I've used all my EB points.,,

GUWonder

The mediator left before the weekend, which is something I noted in this thread after it happened. No idea if the mediator had returned since the start of the weekend.

Fredrik74

I haven't seen anything either. I have seen that SAS says they don't think the negotiations are moving forward the same way the unions say but I'll be optimistic anyway.

CPH-Flyer

My reaction to the Norwegian pilots' is about the same as to the Air France pilots trying to invoke a sense of national pride in support of their cause.... The fun pictures from 2014.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-29336165.amp

Seems the effort of invoking national pride is more effective in Norway than it was in France.....

At least we have not reached this level yet
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...b-losses-paris

I still belive that SK has acted pretty poorly towards their employees over the pandemic, but I also do believe that the unions (especially the pilot ones) have been part of reason why SK has never been able to turn the business into a more stable one.

GUWonder

Not sure it’s as much about national pride in Norway. Maybe it’s because Norway doesn’t have as large a proportion of its public having their thought/issue-space consumed increasingly (rather than decreasingly) by the extremes as in Sweden during the more recent years.

dark_phoenix

I think the strike has wider support than just Norway.

The majority of people in this group are anti-union it seems, but I don't look at this group as representative of the average traveller.

vanillabean

Two hours until noon!

https://www.berlingske.dk/virksomhed...e-udsaettelser

CPH-Flyer

I am not anti union as such, but I am quite anti the various SAS unions.

oliver2002

The dozen or so unions working for SAS entities have collectively bought down SAS as an airline. If you look at the pragmatic approach unions took in Switzerland and Finland, which are very similar in population/economic size and living standards to DK/NO/SE and how their 'state' carriers are doing, it quickly becomes evident this situation can only be resolved via SAS Group going BK. SAS management had an opportunity in 2020 to sort out the labor issues/contracts but missed the boat. Now with a resurgent market and universal crew shortage they won't get anywhere.

dark_phoenix

Fair enough.

Me personally, I put the blame for the situation on both sides of the table. I think SAS has a history of mismanagement and bad leadership. They lurch from crisis to crisis pinning the blame on everything but themselves. It's one of the few companies that continuously needs to be rescued from itself. On the other hand, I think the unions yearn for a reality that no longer exists at the price points that the airline's customers are willing to pay. And the sooner they get a grip on that the better. They need to realise that a radical restructuring of their relationship with the airline will happen eventually and they can either influence it or be influenced by it.

From SAS Core to SAS Forward, I can relate to the perspective that when it comes to the relationship between SAS and its unions, they are now entering the realm of the Definition of Insanity. I do wonder what will be different this time around, but mostly from the perspective as an outside observer.

CPH-Flyer

Oh, I also put a lot of blame on SK management along the way. I think I posted that somewhere up thread, or in a different thread. It takes two to tango, and the combination of SK management and the unions have had a very destructive tango.

My main gripe with the SK unions is, as you also mention, that they live in an alternate reality when it comes to the finances of an airline.

Peter1012

Anko just addressed the press. The pilots go on strike...

Dania 1581

I have two flights tomorrow. Yesterday I received a message from SAS suggesting to rebook it (for when?!).
I guess I just need to wait and see for how long the strike can go on
I don’t think it will go on for many hours, any thoughts about it?

FlyingMoose

This. There is no argument other than politics that Finland and Switzerland can figure out their status quo and Scandinavia can not.

Don't forget the Swedish and other governments that are predominantly left/socialist and who will never speak out against unions as the culprit of most problems in these countries that can not be attributed to immigration. Since those unions continue to artificially advance the living standards of their voters at the expense of the economy and companies. The Swedish government specifically doesn't want to increase their stake in SAS because of the mess with the unions while a right/capitalist government would understand the need for a functional airline for economic growth (or just economic sustainability) and the need for compensation for say pilots being tied to company performance.