Offer rejected

Dispute over higher wages: next AUA strike looms

Protest poster at an AUA staff meeting

(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

The turbulence at Lufthansa subsidiary AUA continues. Now that the union members of the flying personnel have rejected the management's latest improved offer (18 to 28 percent increase) by means of a vote, further strikes are likely to take place. A total of 20 (!) rounds of negotiations have already been unsuccessful. By the end of March, AUA had flown in a loss of a whopping EUR 122 million, partly due to the disputes.

While agreement has already been reached on a new collective agreement (CLA) in numerous sectors, such as the poultry industry (+6.78 percent), agricultural businesses in Carinthia (+7.02 percent), religious hospitals in Upper Austria (+9.15 percent) and the paper processing industry (+7.8 percent), the fierce turbulence in the CLA talks for AUA's flying personnel (around 3,500 employees) continues. After 20 rounds of negotiations, the union has decided to submit the improved offer from AUA management to the affected union members for a vote. 

AUA offer rejected by 90 percent in vote
In the vote, a distinction was made between pilots (around 1,000 captains and co-pilots) and cabin crew (around 2,500). The issue will only be resolved if both groups agree to the new collective agreement presented. According to initial reports from the union, this was the case. Overall, only 10 percent voted in favor of the offer - with a high turnout of 88 percent of those eligible to vote, according to reports.

Only on-board employees who are members of the union were allowed to vote on the collective bargaining proposal.

(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

AUA CEO Annette Mann: "We have presented a very good offer that is already well within the company's economic capacity.

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

AUA management criticizes the way the vote was conducted
AUA emphasizes that it has submitted a "very good offer, which is already well within the company's economic capacity". At the same time, AUA CEO Annette Mann criticized the way in which the voting process took place. This was "incomprehensible". Not only were two groups formed (pilots and cabin crew), but only those employees of the flying AUA staff who are also union members were allowed to vote. That is "only" around 60 percent. The rest were not allowed to vote, even though their own wages were at stake.

vida union boss Roman Hebenstreit feels vindicated by the result of the vote.

(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

Works meetings and strikes could follow
This means that flights at AUA are likely to be canceled again next week, as the union has now cleared the way for further works meetings, strikes and therefore also flight cancellations. According to vida, it remains to be seen how things will actually proceed and when they will sit down at the negotiating table again.

In any case, it is the passengers who will suffer, as the airline will probably have to rebook the affected passengers at short notice and try to minimize the damage to the company. But there is also growing internal resentment towards the vida union and the on-board works council. Almost a third of AUA ground staff recently wrote a letter to the on-board works council pleading for more common sense and an end to the dispute. After all, thousands of jobs are at stake if the airline is threatened with a crash due to excessive salary demands.

AUA with a loss in the three-digit million range this year
The last strikes and rallies have already cost the airline an impressive EUR 26 million. On top of this, the airline has lost around EUR 10 million in bookings due to its tarnished image. In addition to a generally weaker load factor, these are the main reasons why the airline posted a loss (EBIT) of 122 million euros in the first quarter (after a loss of 73 million euros in the same period last year).