SAS baggage handlers at Copenhagen Airport are told to stop illegal strike

The baggage handlers at SAS, who have refused to work all day, must resume work. It is at least the decision at a joint meeting between the parties at the highest level, namely the Danish Employers’ Association on the employer side and the Trade Union Movement’s Main Organisation on the employee side, says both the union 3F and the airline SAS.

However, it has not made any difference in Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport, where things are unusually sluggish on the luggage belts, even though the first weekend day of the winter holidays is one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Passengers at Kastrup Airport are told that their flight has either been delayed or cancelled due to the work stoppage, and some have to leave without their luggage.

The baggage employees have stopped working in protest against what they call “longer working hours and lower wages” as well as a lack of responsiveness from SAS’ management. It’s happening right now and causing big delays.

No strike has been announced, and this is thus an illegal and non-contractual strike.

With delays and cancellations, SAS press manager Aleksandra Lindgren emphasises that SAS is doing everything they can to get their passengers off on winter holidays. She does not recognise the baggage handlers’ frustration with the management.

Both growing competition from low-cost airlines and not least the global corona pandemic have given SAS difficult conditions, and according to Aleksandra Lindgreen, there are currently only half as many SAS aircraft in the air as before corona.

Source: DR.dk