The SAS pilots would go on strike at midnight if the SAS management and the union failed to agree. After intensive negotiations, the conflict remains, but the strike is postponed – 72 hours.
– SAS and the Norwegian pilot association have agreed to continue the negotiations for three days. It has been an intensive work to find a solution, says the Norwegian national mediator Mats Wilhelm Ruland, to the news agency TT.
Employees can be shut out
It has been almost three weeks since the Swedish Pilot Association submitted its strike notice to the Mediation Institute, after the parties failed to agree on a new collective agreement.
SAS has also announced a lockout from Arlanda in response to the pilot strike, which would mean that employees will be suspended from work.
Tens of thousands can be affected per day
During a strike, between 20,000 and 30,000 passengers a day can be affected, according to SAS. The parties have been silent about the details of the negotiations.
– We have been sitting here for two weeks and have today been asked by the mediators to continue for another 72 hours and we have accepted. It is now required that we both go back to the negotiating table and really try to agree. We hope that we will succeed, says Martin Lindgren, chairman of the Swedish SAS section at the Swedish Pilot Association, to the news agency TT.