LOT Polish Airlines on strike
 

This seems to have been overlooked by most European media so far:
https://www.rmf24.pl/fakty/news-lot-...JaY-8Q6XRMvA-M
https://www.newsweek.pl/biznes/chaos...MsYQkTi-Caf_h0

In a nutshell, LOT's flight and cabin crews, upset at Company mismanagement and unfair employment practices (LOT, a State-owned flag carrier, recruits pilots and cabin crew on [bogus] self-employed contracts, called "B2B" :*) are now in their 6th day of strike. Flight crew also have issues about being sometimes pressured to fly with open MEL items, and a general lack of maintenance foresight resulting in many aircraft being routinely grounded awaiting parts.

LOT Management's answer would make Michael O'Leary jealous: they fired the union representative, then a number of flight crew for going on strike - in defiance of a judge's injunction which found the strike to be legal. Faced with 19th-century-style strong-arm tactics, more crew have now joined the strike.

Meanwhile, a number of flights (both short- and long-haul) have been cancelled:
https://www.airportia.com/poland/war...N8CsaOEeMrzOdA , crews have been offered bonus incentives to fly during the strike, and some routes are sub-contracted to ACMI operators...

Cheers :cool:

https://www.reuters.com/article/lot-layoffs/polish-national-airline-lot-lays-off-67-workers-over-strike-idUSL8N1X23SF

LOT Polish Airlines on strike
 

LOT CREW ON STRIKE AND IN NEED OF SUPPORT! BAD WORKING CONDIITIONS AND CREWS' FATIGUE PUT PASSANGERS' SAFETY IN DANGER! Fatigued crew members are regularly mobbed by Lot Polish Airlines. Most of the flight and cabin crew are bogusly self-employed. In 2013 salary terms and conditions were terminated leading to decreased earnings. Since 2017 the situation has been getting worse and worse. The public should know facts regarding work conditions and the ongoing strike. Bad working conditions of the employees directly impact passengers' safety. LOT Polish airlines management is responsible not only for mobbing and exploiting the workers but also for putting passengers' health and life in danger. We ask the passengers and employees of other airlines to express their solidarity with the striking workers. On 18 OCT flight attendants and pilots went on strike demanding: - re-employment of Monika Żelazik, the unlawfully fired leader of the Flight and Cabin Crew Union (ZZPPiL),- withdrawal of a reprimand received by captain Adam Rzeszot, the leader of the Airline Pilots’ Union (ZZPK), - fair salary terms and conditions,- a stop to all acts of harassment and intimidation of the employees. At the turn of April, after over three years of unsuccessful negotiations, pilots and flight attendants organized a strike referendum. 90% of the participants said “yes” to strike. As a result, the leader of ZZPPiL was disciplinarily fired and the leader of ZZPK received a reprimand for speaking on flights’ safety. LOT Polish Airlines management is trying to blackmail and silence the protesters. Unacceptable! NO TO WORKERS’ RIGHTS VIOLATION!
!!! LOT POLISH AIRLINES PILOTS AND CABIN CREW ASKS FOR YOU SUPPORT !!!

I hope that the regulatory authorities in the US and Canada are informed about this (LOT also flies to Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles, among other places). In the last couple of days, it has been reported that LOT has been flying with unqualified cabin crew during the strike. There was a report of a flight attendant forced to work as cabin services director, and collapsing on board because of the stress of doing a job she was not trained for. Also, the strikers say that many of them have been offered positions by other carriers. The government-appointed CEO is clearly making a mess of it, and the government-allied Solidarity Union refuses to support the strikers, who belong mainly to the non-PiS independent OPZZ union central.