Finnair pilots start strike November 16 as talks fail

The pilots of Finnish airline Finnair said on Saturday today said that they had rejected the lastest proposal in talks with their employer and would go on strike on Monday, grounding all the carrier's traffic.                                           

Finnair and the Finnish Airline Pilots' Association have been trying to reach a deal for more than a year, with the talks coming to a head two weeks ago as Finnair started to outsource some routes.                                           

"The proposal by the state mediator allowed unlimited use of outside workforce, and did not offer pilots any work security. We can not sign such a proposal," the union said in a statement.                                           

Finnair spokesman Taneli Hassinen said: "We stick to our policy that the direction right belongs to management ... for the company to not be able to rent its equipment without the pilots' permission is completely stunning as a demand." Finnair said the strike would cancel out all the savings achieved by other employee groups.  

Hassinen estimated Finnair will lose 2.5-5 million euros ($3.72-7.44 million) per day during a strike that, except for its leisure flights, would ground all domestic and international traffic. "We have to see how to proceed and what solutions we come up with," Hassinen said.                                           

Finnair said it would likely cancel most of its long-haul flights from Helsinki on Sunday and European flights departing on Sunday and returning on Monday. Like other airlines, state-controlled Finnair has slashed capacity, cut jobs and launched a number of cost saving programmes as the economic slowdown has reduced demand. 

The struggling carrier, which posted a slightly bigger than expected loss in the third-quarter, has said it has a long way to go before it could be sustainably competitive.