UPDATE: SAS pilots extend strike talks until midday on Monday
Pilot unions in Sweden, Denmark and Norway have agreed to extend talks with the SAS airline until midday on Monday, after a deadline on Saturday passed without a deal. SAS flights scheduled for this weekend will fly as normal.
The Swedish pilots' union SPF and other unions have been negotiating for weeks, with the deadline for a strike extended from midnight on Friday, to 11am on Saturday morning, and now until midday on Monday.
"We need to sleep, no one has slept with us for a very long time," SAS's chief negotiator, Marianne Hernæs, told Sweden's TT newswire.
"We'll meet again tomorrow. Now I am going home and sleeping, I have not slept for many hours," Keld Bækkelund Hansen, leader of the Danish trade union Dansk Metal, told Denmark's Ritzau newswire.
Hernæs said that the two sides were still "extremely far away from one another" when it came to their positions.
On June 9, the pilot unions of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark submitted their notice to strike on June 29th, with the strike then postponed until July 1st, then again until July 2nd, and now until Monday the 4th. If negotiations do not succeed, 900 pilots could go on strike at midnight.
Flights from SAS subsidiaries, SAS Connect, SAS Link, Cityjet Xfly and Air Baltic were unlikely to be directly affected by the pilot strike.
The SAS management and SPF have been in intensive negotiations for several weeks on a new collective agreement.
The Swedish pilot union believes that SAS is circumventing the right to re-employment by using staff from two subsidiaries as temporary labourers.
Some 560 pilots who were laid off during the pandemic have not been re-employed.
After negotiations continued all night last night, the situation remains unclear but is progressing, according to the chief negotiator.
"We regret this situation we are in but we actually try everything we can," says Marianne Hernæs.
Harsh criticism
On Friday, Norwegian put heavy pressure on SAS when the Norwegian pilot union threatened to drive the company into bankruptcy.
The Swedish pilot union also sharply criticized SAS's negotiating position on Friday.
"An employer who tries to organize away from employer responsibility and agreements entered into by starting a letterbox company has nothing to do with the Swedish labor market and lacks justification for existence", Martin Lindgren, chairman of the SAS section at the Swedish Pilot Association, said in a written comment to TT.
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The Swedish pilots' union SPF and other unions have been negotiating for weeks, with the deadline for a strike extended from midnight on Friday, to 11am on Saturday morning, and now until midday on Monday.
"We need to sleep, no one has slept with us for a very long time," SAS's chief negotiator, Marianne Hernæs, told Sweden's TT newswire.
"We'll meet again tomorrow. Now I am going home and sleeping, I have not slept for many hours," Keld Bækkelund Hansen, leader of the Danish trade union Dansk Metal, told Denmark's Ritzau newswire.
Hernæs said that the two sides were still "extremely far away from one another" when it came to their positions.
On June 9, the pilot unions of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark submitted their notice to strike on June 29th, with the strike then postponed until July 1st, then again until July 2nd, and now until Monday the 4th. If negotiations do not succeed, 900 pilots could go on strike at midnight.
Flights from SAS subsidiaries, SAS Connect, SAS Link, Cityjet Xfly and Air Baltic were unlikely to be directly affected by the pilot strike.
The SAS management and SPF have been in intensive negotiations for several weeks on a new collective agreement.
The Swedish pilot union believes that SAS is circumventing the right to re-employment by using staff from two subsidiaries as temporary labourers.
Some 560 pilots who were laid off during the pandemic have not been re-employed.
After negotiations continued all night last night, the situation remains unclear but is progressing, according to the chief negotiator.
"We regret this situation we are in but we actually try everything we can," says Marianne Hernæs.
Harsh criticism
On Friday, Norwegian put heavy pressure on SAS when the Norwegian pilot union threatened to drive the company into bankruptcy.
The Swedish pilot union also sharply criticized SAS's negotiating position on Friday.
"An employer who tries to organize away from employer responsibility and agreements entered into by starting a letterbox company has nothing to do with the Swedish labor market and lacks justification for existence", Martin Lindgren, chairman of the SAS section at the Swedish Pilot Association, said in a written comment to TT.
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