industrial action at Czechoslovak Airlines

[LeadingEdge]

Rumours have it that the pilots may call for a s****e.....summers here,the atmosphere is heating up ...

[Vapor]

Shouldn't that just be Czech Airlines, now that Slovakia is another country.

[LeadingEdge]

you are kinda right...but still,things are heating up there-the pilots are without a collective agreement..i guess management will have a few bad days ahead..

[MarkD]

Still call themselves "CSA" though no? :D

[click]

Yeah.... still calling themselves CSA (Can Strike Anytime).

Company railroading pilots to sign a common collective agreement with the rest of the CSA employees, even though we've already had our own for years. Typical negotiation B.S. no money, no time, no planes...no mo, ....expansion will suffer. etc


We'll see later today after the prez goes on the carpet to explain why he failed in negotiations. Had work to rule here for a while, worked great, excellent pilot response, but seems that either the owners have a different agenda or the prez is playing a game all by himself...and we need to tighten the screws a little.

Stay tuned

[Memetic]

Any rumours of imminent action - like this comming weekend?

I'm doing STN to PRG this Saturday and as it's a weekend away i'd hate to spend it in the terminal.

[FlightDetent]

Puzzling. It is my understanding that it was managing board's meeting today to which CEO is the chairman anyway. I wonder what say did the owners (National Property Fund) really had as of yet eversince the bargaining talks started/stalled :bored: in December.

--cut--

The name has a history of it's own, started pre-WWII as

Ceskoslovenske statni aerolinie
Czechoslovak State (nee national, you just can't have two nations in one country run one airline and call it national) Airlines.

After WWII effectively rebuilt from scrap under the name
Ceskoslovenske aerolinie
Czechoslovak Airlines

In 94, during federation break-up, the company fell to Czech Rep., hence the today's name
Ceske aerolinie
Czech Airlines

The CSA abb. was kept throughout, the S just keeps changing faces. :ok:

[click]

Well there ya go!

You are right, it was my lack of understanding of the marxist-leninist style of management or lack thereof. It seems the managing board is headed by none other than the El Cheeso. The rest of the oversee commitee is staffed by VP's and a rep from the Ministry of Transport and Joiners (Ministerstvo dopravy a spojù).

Result is that the committee, after a very careful and looooong and drawn out deliberation, sided with management and gave them full support. Question is, did they break for coffee first before reconvening as the very surprised management?

Media got a hold of it with very predictable results. Press conference probably this aft. Crux of the matter is still the one collective bargaining agreement. No money mentioned officially, but rumor has it that with the Czech Republic's entry into EU next year, the one thing that the pilots will not do is lower the rest of the aviation community's price as cheap labour from the east bloc.

CSA has three types of A/C, and the backbone of the fleet is the 737. Main hiring boom was in the early seventies and once again in the last few years. Lots of young guys getting the experience and command time, but are not stupid enough to scab the market.

We'll see how it goes today.

[click]

Enjoy your trip from STN to PRG!


Strike planned for the 17th of June at 4 am.

Gonna be a hot summer......great beer, miniskirts, and we're working on the money and benefits issue.:D

TTFN

[Memetic]

Enjoy your trip from STN to PRG!

I will, followed by the beer etc.

Sounds like the return on the 17th might be less fun though! -

Lets hope the management listen.

[LeadingEdge]

They will listen,as the pilots will stop flying..at least most of them...good luck for all you poor east bloc cheapy pilots..may the force be with you :)
:ok: :ok: :ok

[click]

ooohhh gloves are off!:ouch:


Management threatening to fire union officials, Tv reports last night.Mechanics and flight attendants standing behind the pilots on this one and ready for a scrap on their own turf. It seems management just not getting the message that all is not well....

Reports that extra capacity will be contracted out to other airlines. Wonder what they'll think (at CSA) when they find out that IFALPA will be getting a request for the usual bans, including extra capacity. And wonder what they'll think at Skyteam when they find out that their pax are travelling with 'monkeyflytoo' and not with a safe and audited airline like CSA.

[LeadingEdge]

Ja Mann....lets fight,now is our time!

[click]

Should have stuck to driving the JUTA, probably could have made more money than here....

As an example of how the former east bloc, soon to be EU pilots have been shanked over the last few decades in the spirit of communism.....A Captain retires---->flawless record, millions of pax and miles behind and just wants to enjoy the good life, Well got news for you, upon retirement, he gets a hand shake, a bouqet of flowers (that's if they remember) and an additional couple hundred (Yes Virginia, a couple hundred!, that's two hundred or two times one hundred) dollars. Nice retirement eh?
and then he gets the government pension of 400 dollars. Enjoy!

There's some things you just gotta stand up for and show that you've got the cajones!

[click]

Hmmmmm, seems that the company's mouthpiece a bit of a loose cannon. In the heat of battle, ie. flapping one's mouth at RTO, he let loose with the company's intention to prosecute union officials. After some digging, this might have been a surprise to the company as well, we'll see how this goes but homey swears that's not what he meant he said it. Regardless, newspapers full of it.

Strike still planned for the 17th, 'intensive negotiations' to secure a separate collective bargaining contract, no conditions attached. The Prez of the company is extremely well known for his ability to waste time by blabbing on endlessly about useless things and not get to the point. It took four hours of point blank questioning for him to admit that there woudn't be separate collective bargaining agreement last weekend. If he keeps that up, I am sure he'll guarantee himself a spot in the sun a little south of MIA :D
He just won't get there on the 17th though:E

[MAJIC9]

... good luck!

let's just keep moving on July 5th... need to get down to ZAG.. don't wanna get stuck in Prague.. ;)

[LeadingEdge]

Why not?Some say PRG is a fine town,so try to find out..and i am sure that there is some sort of nice train/bus,just in case you wont be satisfied...:}

[FlightDetent]

No strike!

Media has it that around 03:45 LT (strike-time minus fifteen) pilots together with other unions were granted their respective separate collective agreements. Which is actually quite incorrect.

The unions were promised to have their own separate collective agreements plus a common one covering the essentials. Now the talks can start at last what will the content be. And it didn't even take whole 8 months or a strike to get down to this! ****. If anyone may have use for this management bunch I'll volunteer to haul'em to gates of hell in instant.

I'm sure fellas will get back to you'll and shed some light on the deal as soon as they get some rest.

No strike!

[Cruise Alt]

MAY 2004, Czech joins EU. Ryan Air now has a whole new 737 rated pilot recruitment market!