UPDATE: On Friday, 6 September, a deal was reached and the strikes were cancelled (see more details here)
September 3, 2019
The possibility of a series of three-day strikes announced for September by the Traffic Pilots Union of Slovenia (SPPS) is becoming increasingly realistic following another round of unsuccessful contract negotiations between Adria Airways’ leadership and its pilots.
In a recent press release, the Pilots Union explains that a request for the start of negotiations for a new collective agreement has been submitted several times to Adria Airways’ management since the end of the summer 2018. The main reason for the request being made at the time was that the old contract expired at the end of August 2019 and the Union hoped to have enough time to negotiate a new ones. Negotiations, however, only began in May of 2019 and included the union’s demand for the Adria Airways leadership to cease all the violations of the previous work contract.
As the talks apparently proved unsuccessful, on August 15 the union declared a series of strikes for September.
With the end of the old collective agreement and without a new one in sight, the Traffic Pilots Union of Slovenia (SPPS) announced to the media that the series of 3-day strikes are about to begin this Sunday. The dates on which Adria’s pilots will not fly unless an agreement is suddenly reached are as follows:
Strike #1: from September 8, midnight (00:00) till midnight (23:59) September 10, also
Strike #2: from September 18, midnight (00:00) till midnight September 20
Strike #3: from September 30, midnight (00:00) till midnight October 2
Apart from the announced strikes, portal 24UR reports that Adria Airways also faces a growing number of angry passengers whose flights get cancelled or rescheduled.
Adria Airways was the only Slovenian airline with its base in the International Airport Jože Pučnik (also known as Brnik or Ljubljana Airport). The state sold the company in 2016 to 4K Invest, a Luxembourg-based restructuring fund, which has been running the company since.
All our stories about Adria Airways can be found here
