CSA contract talks fail
Trouble brewing in the state owned airline. The president of the airline broke off negotiations, quite illegally might I add on Dec.22. Not much hope for reconciliation. The union, which represents the vast majority of the pilots were hoping to hammer out a contract which would have stopped the current wage dumping in the EU and would have brought the CSA pilots up to a 70% average by the year 2007. The president, in a highly emotional speech, stated the usual cr@p…no money no love, fuel costs, LCC’s and so on. This is on the heels of a strategic purchase of brand spanking new A320’s which will eventually replace the backbone of the fleet, the 37 classic. No wonder they got no mooolah! He’s been heard on the intranet, pleading for sanity and saying that if we don’t smarten up, he won’t give us the shiny new toys to play with and we won’t have a new hangar and we might even stop the expansion (that we are financing).
So, come January 1, we will have no contract. Therefore, we’re looking at initially “industrial action – light” and thereafter if there is no pleasure, we’ll upgrade to the full fat version. The unfortunate thing is that due to the Czech labour code, we have to go through the negotiation polka which will take months and months. On the other hand, it will be the start of the season.