TAP airline cabin crew are on a two-day strike called by the National Civil Aviation Flight Staff Union (SNPVAC) due to a lack of agreement in negotiations on the new company agreement.
TAP crew on Tuesday voted to maintain the strike and also approved the scheduling of at least five more days of stoppage between now and 31 January.
In the motion that was voted on at a general meeting of union members on Tuesday, the SNPVAC states that “TAP preferred to ‘pay to see’ the effects of the strike, instead of restoring to the crew what it unilaterally took away from them.”
TAP CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener lamented the union’s decision and expressed her willingness to find solutions to avoid further disruption. TAP and the unions are currently negotiating revising the company agreement as part of the restructuring plan.
TAP proposes wage cuts and more flexible working hours, among other measures.
The cabin crew, dissatisfied with the situation, decided at an emergency general meeting of the SNPVAC on 3 November to go on strike on 8 and 9 December and “flatly reject the proposal for a new Company Agreement (CA)” presented by the airline, which they said was “absolutely unacceptable and manifestly reductive.”
They want the current company agreement to be the starting point and basis for future negotiations.
TAP had submitted a proposal that it said met nine of the union’s 14 demands, but it was conditional on the SNPVAC’s general meeting being brought forward. The union said it was impossible to bring that assembly forward, and TAP withdrew the proposal on the table and decided to cancel 360 flights on the day of the strike.
The minimum services for the strike cover flights to and from Portugal’s two autonomous regions, Madeira and the Azores, as well as Portuguese-language countries and places with large Portuguese emigrant communities.
(Maria João Pereira/Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
