– . When I see what the market looks like now, how our customers are changing and the size of our debt, it is quite clear that we have to take radical steps, says SAS CEO Anko van der Werff. He emphasizes that SAS has been hit by many problems after the coronavirus pandemic crisis led to billions of dollars in losses for the aviation industry.
, huge debts of the company
At the end of the first half of the year, SAS was in debt of around 27 billion Swedish kronor. At the same time, the company has expensive contracts, and the boss has announced that a meeting with trade unions will be convened for negotiations. In this way, he wants to ensure greater flexibility, efficiency and lower costs.
- The situation requires understanding and goodwill on the part of everyone, and negotiations with unions have a specific goal. SAS needs to be competitive if we are to survive, grow and therefore create jobs. I want to do it together with the trade unions, but it takes two to tango, says van der Werff.
SAS share price fell 9,6 percent on the Stockholm Stock Exchange on Monday morning. In Oslo, too, the price drops by 9,1 percent. Several analysts point to an article on Finans.dk as the main reason behind today's fall in stock market prices. Among these analysts is Jacob Pedersen of Sydbank.
- Anko van der Werff is planning big changes which caused fear among investors, says Pedersen.
Anko van der Werff joined the company earlier this year and took over as SAS CEO in July after Rickard Gustafson announced in January that he was resigning.
Trade unions are threatening to leave
SAS Press Director John Eckhoff also highlighted the rate that applies to the airline last week.
– If SAS is to survive and provide places work in Norway and Scandinavia, we must adapt to a new reality with more people traveling for tourism and fewer people traveling for business. The pandemic is not over, even if the planes are full, Eckhoff said.
The statements of van der Werff and Eckhoff stem from threats from the trade union. Namely, they want to terminate the contract with SAS if they fail to meet their conditions.
- If SAS decides to ignore the contracts and use employees, we must consider our cooperation with the airline company. If SAS is now to be responsible for anti-labor policy, we must not consider it the airline of choice, trade union leader Mette Nord said.
Protests begin
Hundreds of SAS pilots present and released on Tuesday appeared in front of the Stortinget to protest the "split" of the airline into Ireland and Denmark. They react to the news that SAS Ireland will change its name to SAS Connect and the creation of SAS Link.
Norwegian SAS pilots organized by the Norwegian SAS Pilots Association (NSF) have long feared what is happening now. The pandemic has halved SAS workforce, including the layoffs of around 5000. Among them, there are roughly 560 pilots, of whom about 200 are Norwegians.
- SAS has a proud 75-year tradition of being a leader in Scandinavia and most recently in 2015 the Scandinavian model aviation champion. And then the company has changed so rapidly in the last five years that you have to do what the competitors have done - and perhaps in a slightly worse way, by circumventing agreed rights, Stener Berg Nelson said.
Labor Minister Hadia Tajik (Labor Party) commented on the conflict at SAS on Monday. Tajik says he wants to clean up and is taking a Nordic cooperation initiative to prevent companies from organizing themselves away from the employer's responsibility.
- We have seen that well-qualified employees have experience. The company creates a new subsidiary in which employees must reapply for their position. This is not a neat way, in this situation there is no other way out. SAS is currently discussing the issue, says Hadia Tajik.
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