Pay dispute may lead to airport strike in Finland on Tuesday

Finnish state mediator Minna Helle proposed early Saturday to solve a pay dispute that would lead to a two-day labour action at Finnish airports on coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

Finnish air transport workers union IAU and the Finnish Cabin Crew Union SLSY have been taking action against the Finnish national airport authority Finavia for months, and a wider sympathy action may lead to a walkout now.

In Finavia 170 ground handling workers are paid on the basis of the prevailing agreement, but 80 employees serving mainly low cost carriers get less.

The tariff agreement entered by the two unions has the general applicability status in Finland, but Finavia's subsidiary Airpro is applying a cheaper agreement to those employees serving low cost carriers such as Norwegian and Ryanair.

Finnavia is also selling capacity of flight attendants to charter companies and pays less than what cabin crews should be paid under the Finnish general applicability rules.

The Unions have singled out Finavia subsidiary Airpro as problematic in terms of employment.

The unions demand that pay must be the same irrespective of whether the customer is a low cost airline or a normal carrier.

National airline Finnair said the support strikes would halt luggage and departure services. At least some flights would be cancelled. Airport operator Finavia has estimated that the strike would affect tens of thousands of passengers.