Wizz Air’s boss reacts to boycott from Norwegian unions: “Childish”
Wizz Air's founder and CEO József Váradi says it is childish that several unions and organizations want to boycott the company's domestic routes in Norway.
Wizz Air’s founder and CEO József Váradi says it is childish that several unions and organizations want to boycott the company’s domestic routes in Norway.
Last week, Wizz Air announced that they are starting up domestic routes from Oslo to Bergen, Trondheim, and Tromsø after flying abroad from Norway for almost 15 years.
The Hungarian company has made it clear that they will not enter into collective agreements with trade unions.
That has led to opposition among the trade unions in Norway.
Unions Industri Energi and Nito will not let their employees use the company for business trips.
“Childish”
“I just think it’s childish,” Váradi told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN).
He believes that organizations do not understand what prosperity is about and that it is about being efficient, growing, and creating jobs.
Váradi says that Wizz is creating and saving jobs without the unions and pays its employees market wages.
The wage costs in the company are 9%, according to DN.
That is much lower than at SAS and Norwegian.
“Look at all the airlines that have been occupied by unions, they are all on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said.
Reactions from Norwegian politicians
The statements created reactions on both the left and the right side of Norwegian politics.
“It may seem that the Wizz Air manager does not know and understand Norwegian working life. It seems he does not understand how we want Norwegian working life to be. His view of trade unions is, to put it mildly, very foreign,” Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Henrik Asheim (H) told DN.
The Labor Party’s (AP) fiscal policy spokeswoman Hadia Tajik called Váradi’s statements “outdated and anti-worker.”
“It shows a complete lack of understanding of Norway’s success story and the working life model,” she noted.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
