Croatia Airlines paralyzed by strike

[TBSC]

It has barely made it to the news but Croatia Airlines (OU) cancelled most of its flights since Tuesday, 14MAY for the strike of its pilot, cabin and ground crew unions. Some flights are operated with wet-leased aircraft from WDL, Bingo, Skywork, Enter, Trade Air and Adria. The strike is against the proposed changes of working conditions (salary cuts and reduced holidays) and corruption within the airline. Earlier this month (on 01-02MAY) majority of cabin crew called in sick forcing cancellation of flights with the wild cat strike. On return the management fired the 42 affected employees. The strikers want the CEO to be replaced. The management is claiming that OU's pilots and cabin crew are flying significantly less than of their EU colleagues and without these changes the bankruptcy would be imminent.

Lufhansa and Brussels Airlines already suspended code-sharing with OU. The government says that the airline is on the brink of going bust and will need to start selling its fleet (of 7 A319/320s and 6 Dash-8-400) if the strike continues. After the 6th day of the strike the government announced that they already have a plan to create a successor of Croatia Airlines with OU's fleet and 50% of its employees with 49% of stakes owned by the government. They believe it can be done within 4 months.

[Locker10a]

Oh dear, sounds like a horrible time for all involved, :ouch:
I sincerely hope things are sorted out, employees will have to increase productivity and perhaps accept a small paycut but in situations like this everyone including management included have to share the pain. I hope this is sorted out and they can return to focusing on expansion and success. They are a nice little airline!

[BAladdy]

It appears OU are trying to keep the operation running by leasing aircraft and crew from other airlines. The last 24 hours seen 13 different leased aircraft operating on behalf of OU.

Surely they can't last another week of strikes if the airline is loosing money like it says it is

The aircraft leased over the last 24 hours are:

9A-BTE - Trade Air F100
D-AWAB -WDL Bae146-300
EC-JUG - SwiftAir MD83
EC-LNC - Albastar 737-400
EC-LNQ - Helitt Lineas Aereas ATR72-200
G-LENM - Cello Aviation RJ85
HB-JIJ - Skywork DH4
LZ-BHH - BH Air - Balkan Holidays A320
SP-ABK - Bingo Airways A320
SP-ENF - Enter Air 737-400
SP-ENH - Enter Air 737-400
SP-ENY - Enter Air 737-800
S5-AAK - Bingo Airways A320

[Clandestino]

It has barely made it to the news but Croatia Airlines (OU) cancelled most of its flights since Tuesday, 14MAY It did not, approximately 1/3 of flights are canceled as there is court order for striking unions to supply enough crews so flights of special state interest can still proceed, e.g. ZAG to FRA, MUC, VIE, SPU and DBV. Also, quite a lot of flights are operated by ad-hoc chartered planes, resulting in a whole lot of temporary suspensions of code-share agreements.

strike of its pilot, cabin and ground crew unions.Ground and administrative staff union reached agreement a couple of hours into strike. It's just cockpit and cabin now.

Earlier this month (on 01-02MAY) majority of cabin crew called in sick forcing cancellation of flights with the wild cat strike.False. All sick leaves were checked by govt inspectors. All but one were OK'd. The odd one was attributed to GP's administrative error.

On return the management fired the 42 affected employees. Threatened but did not perform.

The management is claiming that OU's pilots and cabin crew are flying significantly less than of their EU colleagues and without these changes the bankruptcy would be imminent.Says the management of the company that recently received 120 M€ capital infusion and is now valued at 20 M€. Last year losses reached 184% of total labour costs.

The government says that the airline is on the brink of going bust and will need to start selling its fleet (of 7 A319/320s and 6 Dash-8-400) if the strike continues.Government owns 99% percent of OU's shares yet is blissfully unaware all of their aeroplanes are either leased or mortgaged up to top of vertical stabilizers and are utterly unsaleable.

After the 6th day of the strike the government announced that they already have a plan to create a successor of Croatia Airlines with OU's fleet and 50% of its employees with 49% of stakes owned by the government. They believe it can be done within 4 months. Now that's some quick thinking. Cabin and cockpit unions asked for such a plan four years ago.

Oh dear, sounds like a horrible time for all involvedActually, it wasn't all wine & roses before, it's just escalation in horribility.

employees will have to increase productivity and perhaps accept a small paycut but in situations like this everyone including management included have to share the pain.It would be cheaper just to replace the strikers. After all, take-home pay of 3200€ for captain, 2000€ for F/O and 600€ for F/A is quite a plenty in country where big mac takes you back 2.80€, litre of gas 1.30€, a month's rent in single-bedroom 450€ and typical 5yr old compact about 7000€. There will be plenty of takers, eh? Oh, that's before proposed paycuts.

EDIT: Pilots' union has thrown the towel in as CAs are still striking.