The coordination of three unions at Croatia Airlines (CA) has announced that on Tuesday, May 14, a strike will begin for employees of the Croatian national airline.
The strike will continue until the demands are met, the most crucial of which is the retention of all acquired rights under the collective agreement from last year.
The president of the Croatian Pilots’ Union, Zoran Bilić, stated that the strike will commence at six o’clock in the morning, and the Aircraft Cabin Crew Union and the Independent Croatian Union of Aviation Employees will also participate in the strike. Noting that all three unions have about 600 members, Bilić is confident in a strong turnout of employees for the strike. The key demand is the retention of acquired rights under the collective agreement from 2012, as these are rights that have been accumulated over the last two decades, he said.
Bilić also mentioned that, despite the strike, operations will not be completely halted as there are jobs that must not be interrupted.
Announcing that the Coordination of CA Unions will detail the reasons for the strike at a press conference in front of the management building on Monday, he stated that CA has been accumulating losses for years, which currently amount to nearly half a billion kuna, and current indicators suggest that these losses will continue. At the same time, by all indicators, Croatia Airlines is far behind competing companies, its employees are being harassed, and in just the last year, more than 10% of the flight crew has left the company, Bilić said. He sees the main problems in what he described as the management of the company, which the unions have been continuously warning about in recent years and which has been systematically ignored.
