SAS Top-Flight Union Accuses Striking Pilots of 'Treason' As Bankruptcy Looms

The pilots accused the pan-Scandinavian airline of crumbling working conditions, unreasonable wage cuts and increased working hours, as well as abusing the pandemic to sack staff and hire new personnel through front companies.

Nearly 1,000 SAS pilots who went on strike last week over wages and working conditions are now facing severe criticism from two unions for the airline's top staff, SAS Academics and SAS Leadership Club, representing the airline's lawyers, engineers and top managers.

They fear that the strike may be the beginning of the end for SAS and thus cost them their job.

“It is clear that there is a concern among the staff that the pilots are now driving the last nail in the coffin,” Anders Westman, the chairman of SAS Leadership Club, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Timing the strike to coincide with high season has also sparked attention from the airline's leadership. The strike started in the middle of the summer holidays, and affects up to 30,000 passengers a day. As of now, it remains uncertain whether it is possible to obtain compensation for SAS cancellations.

“It is not only a betrayal of colleagues in SAS, but also treason against loyal travelers who have bought airline tickets,” the joint statement by the two unions said.

Therefore, the two unions have urged the pilots to drop the strike.

The airline is currently now working on a major rescue plan called SAS Forward, billed to ensure its survival. But the plan can now be put on hold, the unions believe, because the strike risks causing insolvency. Both SAS Academics and SAS Leadership Club said they “fully support chief executive Anko van der Werff and SAS’s management in their work” and urged the pilot associations to do likewise.

“Otherwise no one wins”, Westman stressed.

However, Henrik Thyregod, chairman of the SAS pilots' union, rejected the criticism and stressed that the pilots had done what they could to avoid the strike.

The strike began last week, after negotiations for a new labor agreement broke down in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The pilots are dissatisfied with the company hiring staff on cheaper contacts to the two subsidiaries SAS Link and SAS Connect they see as typical mailbox companies. Instead, they want SAS to re-employ former pilots who were laid off during the corona pandemic. In addition to the nearly 1,000 pilots, 200 aircraft mechanics have gone on a sympathy strike.

The SAS management won't meet this demand, as, according to the airline, it can give the employees too much influence over who can be hired.

The industrial action has left the Scandinavian flag carrier in a precarious financial position, as SAS has already filed for bankruptcy in the US.

In recent years, Scandinavia's largest airline has been mired in problems because of an unfortunate combination of staff shortages, labor disputes, ballooning debts and plummeting demand, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is fighting for survival despite substantial relief packages from its majority owners, the Swedish and the Danish state.