Pilots end strike - Finnair flight schedules getting back to normal

Planes of the Finnish airline Finnair are starting to fly again on Wednesday after the airline and its pilots agreed to a settlement to a labour dispute. The conflict had led to a strike by the pilots, shutting down nearly all scheduled flights on Monday and Tuesday.

Finnair expects to fly nearly half of its regularly scheduled flights - mostly domestic and European routes, but a few long-haul flights are also to be flown on Wednesday. On Thursday, about two thirds of scheduled services should be operating, and Finnair expects flights to be back to normal on Friday (see link below to Finnair site for up-to-date information).

On Tuesday evening both the Finnish Air Line Pilots’ Association (SLL) and Finnair accepted a mediation proposal by National Conciliator Esa Lonka. Accepting the settlement was most difficult for the union; the vote on the SLL council was 8-5 in favour of the settlement, and the decision came an hour after the deadline that had been set.

The conflict hinged on Finnair’s plans to outsource services, particularly on the company’s plans to use outside labour on Finnair’s own flights.

SLL says now that the contract that was accepted permits a certain degree of outsourcing - allowing Finnair to lease two jets to Finncomm, on the condition that the planes and their crews do not fly Finnair flights.

The agreement means that only Finnair pilots can fly Finnair flights. However, the outsourcing means that the actual number of Finnair flights will decrease.

Lonka said that the upshot of the contract is that Finnair will get some flexibility in outsourcing, while the pilots get to keep a degree of job security.

SLL president Kristian Rintala attributes the dispute to a lack of confidence.

“In terms of money, this is the worst contract that we have ever agreed to. We nevertheless want to show that we are very committed to Finnair. It was not about money. We have actually exceeded the company’s goals for cutting costs.”

The contract is valid through October 2011. The contract gives pilots job security through the end of next year. The pilots agreed to a pay cut of five per cent, and to raise their retirement age to 63.