SAS strike ends, pilots return to work

After 15 days, SAS and the pilot organizations have reached an agreement. The strike is over, and the pilots will return to work.

“Last night, we reached an agreement. The strike is over. We will resume work tomorrow,” Martin Lindgren in the Swedish Pilot Association announced Tuesday night.

“After long, hard negotiations, we have finally reached an agreement,” SAS’s chief negotiator Marianne Hernæs added.

“I am very happy that we can finally leave here with a signed agreement. I am also happy on behalf of the passengers that we can resume flights from tomorrow,” Hernæs said.

About 900 pilots in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have been on strike since Monday, July 4.

“Pleased”

“I am pleased that we have now reached agreements with all four pilot associations in SAS Scandinavia and that the strike has ended,” SAS CEO Anko Van der Werff stated in a press release from the company.

“Finally, we can resume normal operations and fly our customers to their long-awaited summer holiday destinations,” he noted, apologizing to customers for the problems the strike has created.

It is expected that it will take a few days before SAS flights are back to normal operation. 

NHO Luftfart is also pleased that the strike is now over.

“This means that the last part of the summer season is saved, and the company can focus on restoring a good flight offer in Norway and abroad,” Torbjørn Lothe stated.

450 pilots get job back

“It has been an extraordinary and very demanding negotiation, but we have now reached an agreement that will end the strike,” the Norwegian SAS Pilots’ Association and the Norwegian Pilots’ Association wrote in a press release.

They write that the agreement ensures that 450 laid-off pilots are now guaranteed re-employment in the company.

The agreement between SAS and the pilot associations will last for five and a half years. In Norway, it is common for collective agreements to last for two years. The members of the pilot associations will now vote on the agreement.

“It’s going to a referendum. We will have a vote on the agreement among our members. Then everything will be ready,” Lindgren said.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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