The Finnish Cabin Crew Union, or SLSY, Chairwoman Thelma Akers told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday that the strike negotiations with Finnair (FIA1S.HE) will take place after 1300 GMT Tuesday, at the earliest.
The main point of contention, according to Akers, is that while the Finnish airline wants to expand its longhaul flights, it also want to reduce the length of the cabin crew’s recovery time–the extra time off that the cabin crew gets after a longhaul flight–to 24 hours from 36 hours.
“Longhaul flights means a large amount of work during the night. That puts a lot of pressure on the crew because of the heavy work load and the time difference,” Akers said.
There are other minor parts of the agreement with the union that Finnair wants to revise. However, the recovery time is the decisive issue as far as the union is concerned, Akers said.
“We are on strike as long as it takes. Money is not a problem for the union,” she added.
The strike is scheduled to begin at 1100 GMT Tuesday.
This is the second time the SLSY is on strike. Last time was in the spring of 2006, and at that time the strike lasted two days.
