The union representing Croatia Airlines' pilots, cabin crew and mechanics, ORCA, has announced that its members have voted in favour of industrial action after mediation talks with the company's management failed over an impasse concerning a new collective bargaining agreement. The union noted that while the walkout is yet to be scheduled, it is "likely to take place in July", at the height of the busy summer season. Croatia Airlines' management said they are yet to receive official word from ORCA informing them of the strike but added, "Since November 2016 we have called upon our social partners to take part in a constructive dialogue and collective negotiations, with the aim of reaching a new agreement. This option still remains open".
The planned industrial action will be the first in four years at the airline. In May 2013, unions staged an eight-day walkout, paralysing the carrier and its operations. It ended with the signing of a new collective agreement which has now expired. Croatia Airlines' CEO, Krešimir Kučko, previously said that the management proposed to extend the terms of the 2013 agreement until the end of this year and for negotiations over a new deal to resume after the summer season, during which the airline generates the bulk of its profits and revenue. Mr Kučko noted that ORCA came to the negotiating table with 150 demands, which would set the company back 6.7 million euros per year. "All of the demands are of a financial nature. If we, for example, reduce their work hours, it would generate losses for the company because we would have to hire more people. I think their objective was for the mediation talks to fail as soon as possible, so they could pressure us into doing something", Croatia Airlines' CEO said. Late last month, twelve of the airline's captains resigned from their pilot instructor positions following the dismissal of one of their colleagues, in a sign of growing discontent between staff and top tier management.
Croatia Airlines' financial performance and passenger numbers have improved during the first quarter of the year, with the company registering a net profit of 1.2 million euros. It anticipates handling over two million passengers this year, making it its busiest on record. The growth will be fuelled by the recent introduction of four new routes out of Zagreb, on top of the four new services launched from the Croatian capital last year. Furthermore, the airline has wet-leased two Bombardier CRJ 1000 aircraft for use during the summer. At the height of the season this year, Croatia Airlines will operate up to 105 flights per day. During the 2013 strike, the airline maintained 37% of its scheduled operations.
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Btw if they go on strike, does it mean that the CRJ will also not fly? I know the pilots are Spanish but the crew is local, well one of them.
Out of the roughly 1000 employees, how many are expected to go on strike, does somebody know?
The issue is he management sat last time and let it go for 8 days.
Their priority should be to look for new markets towards which they can fly on a year-round basis.
Anyone who works in the private sector knows that there is nothing worse than revenue oscillations.
These oscillations are especially dangerous because costs remain more or less the same throughout the year while the revenue, which is used to cover these expenses, is not. This means that they make money in summer but once winter comes they are forced to use these reserves to pay their bills.
By introducing year-round destinations they will increase their revenue and with it, hopefully, their profit (or at least to reduce their overall loss). In such a way they will be able to reduce the negative effects of the winter season.
Once there is more more money coming in and hopefully there are less losses, it will be easier to meet the demands of the workforce.
However, the employees need to understand in what state the airline is now. I do wonder if they are aware of the fact that the sale of the LHR slots is financing a great deal of the airline's day to day operations? Or do they not care because they believe that the government will not allow for OU to go bankrupt?
p.s. does OU have any crew based outside of ZAG?
http://www.mppi.hr/default.aspx?id=7103
actually, Croatia was on of these countries not so long ago and there were strikes back then too.
OT and in German only
Watch this report about LCC, mainly Ryanair how they cheat the social systems in Europe or how they are an increasing danger factor to the skies of Europe with tjeir fuel saving practise and internal rankings ob intranet which pilot leads the lowest fuel consumption.
Scary and definitely time to stop supporting LCC. Dont fly them if you dont have to!
http://www.b92.net/putovanja/vesti.php?yyyy=2017&mm=06&dd=16&nav_id=1272664
srdacni vozac traktora ga je odbacio od aviona a jos srdacnija posada pustila u avion....mozes misliti.
However, every airline in Europe deals with seasonality issues, i guess only a handful of them (if at all) can make money during winter season.
That's why every carrier needs to earn enough in summer to cover all losses in winter+earn a bit more in summer to be in the black at EoY.
Now ask again why people take certain sides on here.
1 job for life situation doesn't exist anymore.
But at least they are not flying 30+ year old B737-300 with mechanical instruments in the cockpit, unlike a "legacy carrier" from exyu that shall not be named.
exactly, even @Lufthansa they'll hardly get any better conditions. In fact they'll get less.
In Croatia, state workers, or workers who work for the state, tend to be the laziest, slowest and most arrogant workers. I had to get my new passport issued, they took their time, even though I paid 700 kuna, which should take 3 days, before they'll issue me new passport they wanted whole bunch of documents... Took 2 days more to get all the paperwork in order.
Everywhere you go, staff is unkind, rude and gives you that nasty look, like you're worthless. Cause they have their cushy jobs and they couldn't care about the world.
Almost all staff behave like that, cause they've got safe jobs. I look forward to when all government departments are itemized and everything is online, perhaps by 2020.
OU has staff in Dubrovnik and Split, i think around 100 staff in each city, half of it cabin crew pilots.
As to flying year round, yes this is what they're doing, they'll be adding more and more routes. Plan is to fly to at least 40 destinations by 2020, and 32 of these year round.
Athens - s
Barcelona
Berlin
Brussels
Bucharest
Cologne - s
Copenhagen
Dubrovnik
Düsseldorf - s
Frankfurt
Helsinki - s
Lisbon
London
Lyon - s
Milan - s
Munich
Nice - s
Osijek - s
Oslo - s
Paris
Prague
Pristina
Pula
Rijeka
Rome
Saint Petersburg
Sarajevo
Skopje
Split
Stockholm
Stuttgart
Tel Aviv - s
Venice - s
Vienna
Zadar
Zürich
Zagreb.
s = seasonal
Here OU flies to 37 destinations in summer months. If they have enough planes by 2020, they could fly to all these cities year round if there's good demand for these destinations. Problem is lack of planes.
PS
Adding these cities in short and longer term is a must. However, this is when airline has enough planes.
Gothenburg
Istanbul
Dublin
Budapest
Madrid
Marseilles
Palma
Casablanca
Cairo
Sofia
Kiev
Hamburg
Tallinn
Riga
Vilnius
Btw, W6 announced today that it expands next year from SOF by launching NCE and LIS! Hope they do the same with BEG and INI who definitely need more French airports due to the diaspora.
And btw DL AA fly them to. LH just retired their 733 last year only
Quantity of paper are high, but all of them you can get by e-citizen, if you are registered, without spending a minute for those, just print it at your home. Easy, fast and it is on for several years now for all the documents you need.
1.Iskreno mislim da bi kompaniju moglo pokopati štraj ustred sezone, kada nema alternative (avioni su prezauzeti, ogroman novac na kompenzacije, kratak lizing u top sezoni košta enormno puno), kada kompanija uzima jedin ozbiljan novac, konačno to će imati ogromne posljedice i po hrvatski turizam i ostale grane gospodarstva vezane uz turizam. To ne podržavam ni na koji način. Čak štoviše zgražam se nad time.
2. Mislim da su radnici trebali pričekati izbor novog CEO i sjesti sa njim. Ili nisu? Hm, hm, hm... ovisno koje informacije imaju.
3. No, razumijem i radnike. Međuljudski odnosi u firmi su katastrofalni. Uprava nije smjela dozvoliti da zbog čiste inercija istekne kolektivni ugovor, radnici imaju pravo na isti, a nemaju ga već pola godine. Radnici su isfrustrirani nad činjenicom da su im primanja manja nego početkom tisučljeća. Da im primanja ne rastu, a skidana su im sa recesijom i restrukturacijom. Firma je profitabilna, dakle vrijeme je da im se primanja vrate nakon tolikih rezanja.
4. Još više su frustrirani sa pay to fly (koji je jedan od glavnih razloga štrajka). I tu imaju potpuno pravo. Struka je energično protiv tog robovlasničkog i sigurnostno neprihvatljivog sustava "školovanja".
5. Stotine primjera katastrofalnih međuljudskih odnosa je iznjeto, radna atmosfera je zatrovana. Posljednji primjer kapetana Šarinića, samo je kap koja je prelila čašu. Uprava je prepotentna, ne želi razgovarati, koristi neprimjerenu silu, koristi civilizacijski neprihvatljive metode. Konačno uprava koja ratuje sa svojim radnicima ne zna svoj posao. Radnici su naveće blago, oni stvaraju dobrobit firme. Sadašnji predsjednik SAD-a je prije par godina rekao "nitko se nije obogatio svojim radom, nego samo ako je imao dovoljno sposobnih radnika koji rade za njega".
6. Egzodus u inozemstvo desetaka mehaničara i pilota jasno govori kako stvari ne valjaju. Zbog toga je firma bila prisiljena zapošljavati čak i mehaničare iz Srbije, što je država protumačila kao nelegalno. Sada se angažiraju vrlo skupi stranci jer nema alternative za ljude koji su otišli. I to, kako sami kažu, ne prvenstveno radi novaca.
Puno je toga tu loše. Jako puno. Jel štrajk odgovor? A što da vam kažem???
P.S.
Ovo je moj privatan stav, i nema veze sa HSPP-om ili neki drugim sindikatom.
EK downgrades ZAG to B772. I fear next step might be 5 weekly in winter.
Focus is now on France I guess after Brexit
Alan, when was the last time you took passport ???
http://stari.mup.hr/223478/39.aspx
630 kuna, and you have to few other bits that aren't related to putovnica, that comes to arund 677 kuna. I said 700 kuna as a round figure as I had to raise few documents and they each cost around 20 kuna in biljesci stamps.
So question stands when did you apply for your passport last time !!! Alen, come off your high horse.
B777 200LR was original aicraft on the route to start with, however first week or so B777 300ER was used as bookings were high.
Zagreb should have had B777 200 LR from the start. B777 200 LR is now fully booked or almost full on flights to Zagreb, which is how it should be, return flights are also good.
In winters it should be max 6 days, as on Sunday no one really flies. Thursday, Friday and Saturdays are really busy in Croatia. Sundays only coastal airports are busy.
Emirates is very happy with their Zagreb service and load factor is around 80-85% to Zagreb and 50-55% return to Dubai, this was with B777 300ER, with 200LR it'll be near 90-95% full.
You forgot TLV where there is a boom from all CEE cities, MLA and believe it or not, quarter of a million Croats in Argentina. So imagine DY code share with OU add ZAG-BUE. A dream!
And the oldest LH 737 was 5 years younger than YU-AND.
This only goes to show that EK needs narrowbodies for routes such as ZAG, same as Qatar which has also downgraded its flights.
Today it was 300 and tomorrow and so on. Check out the EK system. From time to time EK mixes 200 and 300, an it has nothing to do with downsizing or reducing.
Why are you people so negative?
Serbs are so frustrated with EK flights. :D