SWISS pilots reject new contract proposal

SWISS does not expect the rejection to have any impact on flight operations © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Pilots at Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) have rejected by an 80% margin a new collective labour agreement (CLA), the pilots’ Aeropers union said on Sunday, adding that it aimed to resume negotiations with SWISS management as soon as possible.

“If management continues not to recognise the signs of the times and does not immediately offer adequate solutions, then the pilots must show the management even more clearly how dissatisfied they are,” it said without elaborating.

It is not clear whether a strike will now be held.

The current contract for cockpit personnel expired in April after management rejected a tentative deal from initial talks, Aeropers said.

In a statementExternal link on Sunday, SWISS said it regretted the rejection after several months of intensive negotiations. In its view, the deal represented a compromise that “equitably addressed the interests of both SWISS and Aeropers”.

“Had it been accepted, the new CLA would have given us contractual stability in a highly volatile airline environment for the next four years,” said Oliver Buchhofer, SWISS’s head of operations.

The airline did not expect the rejection to have any impact on flight operations.

Over at Lufthansa

Also on Sunday, pilots at SWISS’s German parent company Lufthansa voted by a margin of 97.6% in favour of industrial action, threatening further disruption during the busy summer travel season.

Strikes and staff shortages have already forced airlines, including Lufthansa and SWISS, to cancel thousands of flights and caused hours-long queues at major airports, frustrating holidaymakers keen to travel after Covid-19 lockdowns.

The vote does not necessarily mean a strike would be held, but it was a signal to the employer that constructive steps needed to be taken, said Marcel Gröls from the German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC).