ZAGREB, August 6, 2018 – The management at Croatia Airlines (CA) and ORCA union did not manage to come to an agreement at a meeting on Monday and the union has said that it will go ahead with its strike as of 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“The management hasn’t backed down from its stance. That means that at 6 a.m. Wednesday, the strike will begin,” Marko Božičević of the pilots union said after the meeting on Monday. He apologised to passengers who will be affected by the strike and asked them to understand.
CA’s management confirmed that an agreement wasn’t reached at today’s meeting to call off the strike and reiterated that the ORCA union insisted on demands made in 2017 which would incur additional costs for the company in the amount of about 53 million kuna, which “is unacceptable at the moment” for the company.
CA’s management board said in a press release that it was prepared for dialogue and that it would continue “to undertake all the necessary steps to alleviate the consequences of the strike.”
Last week CA’s management claimed that the union’s claims that wages had not increased were unfounded and added that at the end of 2017 and in mid-2018, the ORCA union rejected an increase in salaries of 2.5% along with other benefits (Christmas bonus, holiday bonus…).
CA’s management explained last week that the strike would cause losses of 800,000 euro a day and could affect as many as 7,000 passengers each day.
