– We were told to keep the uniforms – VG

Just updated

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– This began in the spring of 2020 when the corona spread and Norway closed down. We were laid off first. So in June we were fired, but with promises that when air traffic picked up, we were warmly welcomed back and wanted in SAS, says former SAS pilot Martin Schjetne to VG.

His fate is at the heart of the conflict between SAS and the pilots of the SAS Pilot Group, which now negotiates in Stockholm:

Instead of bringing in 450 pilots who were laid off during the pandemic, SAS has hired pilots in two new subsidiaries: SAS Link and SAS Connect.

The SAS pilots believe that the company has a responsibility to bring back the pilots, which SAS rejects.

The deadline for negotiations expires at midnight. If they do not reach an agreement, 900 pilots in Norway, Sweden and Denmark will go on strike from Saturday – and a number of planes have been put on the ground.

On Friday night, the Norwegian national broker Mats Wilhelm Ruland says that there is movement between the parties.

– There has been movement. The parties have come somewhat closer. But there is still a lot left, Ruland says E24 at 9 p.m.

Both Norwegian and Swedish brokers are in Stockholm.

– Fooled us

The Norwegian Pilots’ Association says that the pilots in the new subsidiaries have worse conditions than the pilots in SAS, because the companies are not bound by the same collective agreements as SAS. The SAS pilots have sued the company for labor law.

– SAS tricked us. That SAS now does not want to relate to the Scandinavian model and the rules of working life is terribly sad, Schjetne tells VG.

– How clear was the promise from SAS?

– Very clear. We have a 5-year re-entry right and we were told to keep our uniforms ready so that we were ready to return to SAS, says Schjetne.

He now works as a train driver, but will not apply for a job in the new subsidiaries of SAS – SAS Connect and SAS Link.

– For me, this is just a creative circumvention of all collective agreements and an attempt to crush the unions, he says.

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Press manager Tonje Sund at SAS in Norway says that SAS had to lay off many during the corona pandemic, not just pilots.

– 5000 employees throughout SAS lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, which put a global aviation industry on the ground almost overnight, Sund writes in a text message.

– We have fortunately had the opportunity to re-employ several of these and in many areas of the company – including over 100 on the pilot side. The pilots are also in a special position among all employee groups, among other things by holding a right of re-entry to the company they came from, she says.

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VG has checked which SAS flights will go to and from Norwegian airports in the next few days – and then searched for flight numbers on SAS.no.

A total of 571 of 944 flights on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are marked “probably canceled if the strike occurs”.

Here you can search for cities or flight numbers, and see which flights SAS believes can be canceled in the event of a strike:

Competition threat to inconvenience

The negotiations between SAS and the pilots were actually supposed to have ended on Wednesday, but were postponed for three days.

Before the deadline at midnight, the pilots and the SAS management have barked together, after Roger Klokset, leader of the Norwegian SAS pilots’ association and deputy leader of the SAS Pilot Group, said that they are willing to bankrupt SAS.

The seas: 571 flights can be canceled in four days

– We can not write an agreement that makes a future impossible. In this situation, customers are taken hostage. It is the customers in addition to the company’s competitiveness that are affected, says communications director Katrine Nyman in SAS to Aftonbladet.

Check cancellations and follow the air traffic in VG’s overview here!

Correction: An earlier version of this case stated that SAS re-employed 1,000 pilots. It’s wrong. The correct one is 100 pilots. The case was updated on 02.07.22 at 00.07.

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