The cabin crew at the Scandinavian airline —SAS in Norway have embarked on a strike on Friday to drive home, the seriousness of their demands for better salaries and working conditions after wage discussions collapsed according to labour unions said.
According to two labour unions involved in the wage talks, about 120 SAS employees had embarked on the strike at its initial stages but this number is expected to grow in the coming days when more staff members are expected to join the picket line.
At press time, it is not immediately known, how the strike action would impact the airline’s operations even as Norway’s government-appointed wage mediator bemoaned his helplessness to bridge the divide between the two sides.
The labour unions; Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions is representing 640 cabin crew members at SAS Norway, while Parat, part of the Confederation of Vocational Unions, has revealed it negotiated on behalf of a further 240, all of whom could eventually join the strike.
The strike did not involve any SAS pilots, or the airline’s flight attendants employed in Sweden or Denmark, but it may still impact traffic beyond Norway as crews are used across borders.
At this time, the details of the demands at negotiations are still confidential by law but union leaders have revealed that SAS cabin crew members are paid 15% to 30% less than at rival carriers such as Norwegian Air.
