Croatia Airlines heads for strike

Unhappy cabin crew to go on strike

It is a week of strikes in the aviation industry. First Lufthansa’s pilots launched a 4 day strike which was suspended late on Monday evening. On Tuesday, the air controller’s union in France began a strike creating delays at Paris airports. Furthermore, British Airways cabin crew voted in support of a strike and Greece’s air controllers are also heading towards a second strike in as many weeks. Croatia Airlines is the latest to be added to the ever expanding list. Cabin crew of Croatia’s national carrier will stop work on Friday, February 26, over a 10% salary decrease. Last ditch negotiations between the management and cabin crew failed, although it did better with 4 other unions which will not be striking.

The cabin crew are unhappy with a proposed 10% pay cut, a 30% per diem decrease and the loss of other benefits such as meals, annual bonuses and solidarity bonuses. The leader of the cabin crew union announced that the union has already agreed to a 5% pay decrease but will not agree to 10% or a per diem decrease of any kind. A total of 160 cabin crew members will be on strike on Friday although, due to law regulations, 20% of cabin crew will have to work which would allow 11 flights to be carried out, Croatian business magazine “Lider” reports. However, as each strike day continues a smaller amount of cabin crew will be required to work.

An airline statement reads that the strike will cost it 600.000 Euros per day, which the cabin crew have labelled as misleading. The airline’s modified schedule for this Friday can be viewed here. Croatia Airlines will publish Saturday’s schedule (February 27) today at 15.00 CET on its website.