SAS AB, which is already facing a $3 billion restructuring plan, will now also have to deal with a potential strike from its pilots.
Almost 1,000 pilots in Denmark, Norway and Sweden will strike later this month after they failed to reach a new collective labor agreement with the airline, local labor unions said on Thursday.
SAS announced last week its second major rescue package in as many years, seeking to shore up finances depleted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Stockholm-based airline plans to raise equity capital and convert existing debt into stock.
The unions say they are concerned SAS is hiring pilots through two newly created units, SAS Connect and SAS Link, instead of re-hiring unionized staff that was let go during the pandemic. The pilots had offered annual cost cut proposals amounting to 450 million Swedish kronor ($46 million) in return for guarantees that pilots would keep their jobs, the Danish union said in a statement.
“We have reached out very far to help SAS and offered large cost cuts,” Henrik Thyregod, the chairman of the Danish pilot union, said. “Nobody wants SAS to do well more than us and we’re ready to work hard for the company.”
The pilots’ collective labor agreement expired at the end of March and the pilots are therefore allowed to call a strike, the unions said.
SAS didn’t return calls and emails seeking comment. In an emailed statement to the Berlingske newspaper, the airline said that the strike warning is “irresponsible and shows a shocking lack of understanding about the critical situation SAS is in.”
