By a large majority, those flying AUA employees who are organized in the Vida union rejected the latest offer in the negotiations for a new collective agreement for Austrian Airlines. Further industrial action is now imminent, which is why another strike cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, the airline's board of directors wants to think “intensively about the future viability of the company” in the next few days. A few weeks ago, General Director Annette Mann announced that one or two routes could be discontinued or handed over to sister companies within the Lufthansa Group. Now it seems that this is being examined more closely.

In 20 rounds of negotiations so far, no agreement has been reached in the negotiations for a new collective agreement for flying personnel. Numerous company meetings and a strike caused numerous flight cancellations and angry passengers, but there was still no rapprochement.

Günther Ofner calls Vida voting a “fake vote”

According to the Vida union, around 60 percent of pilots and flight attendants were members and could therefore have taken part in the latest vote. However, WKO specialist group chairman Günther Ofner claims that at most a quarter would be in the Vida - According to him, the vast majority of AUA flying employees are not unionized. He even speaks publicly of a “fake vote”.

In any case, Austrian Airlines has around 3.500 flying employees. According to Vida, 60 percent of them were entitled to vote due to their Vida membership. Of these, 88 percent are said to have taken part in online voting. 90 percent of the participants rejected the latest offer in the KV negotiations and spoke out in favor of further industrial action.

“With the last communication from the Vida union it is clear today that it has no realistic ideas about a viable future for Austrian. Since there is still no conclusion and we have to expect further combat measures, we will think intensively about the future viability of Austrian in the coming days,” Austrian Airlines reacts to the vote result.

AUA wants to blame employees for lousy quarterly figures

According to its own statements, the AUA recently achieved the second-worst quarterly result in the company's history in the first three months of a year. This is attributed, among other things, to the company meetings and strikes. These are said not only to have caused costs, but also to have damaged the trust of passengers, so that advance bookings are said to have stalled.

However, Austrian Airlines seems to fail to recognize that it offers a product in economy class on short and medium-haul routes that only differs from low-cost airlines in that it has a larger piece of hand luggage. For “extra services” such as checked baggage, seat reservations and snacks and drinks on board, the additional costs are sometimes significantly higher than with the competition. At the same time, the pure ticket prices are often significantly more expensive. The lack of “added value” compared to low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Wizz Air at a higher price is also likely to contribute to the fact that once loyal AUA customers are gradually migrating to the competition. Apart from “fanboys”, Austrian customers are not very loyal to providers and tend to always book as cheaply as possible.

The general management of Austrian Airlines sees a problem in precisely this circumstance. However, they fail to mention that AUA has been transformed into an expensive airline with low-cost service and that the sometimes exorbitantly increased ticket prices will not be enforceable in the long term. It is precisely for this reason that people are already thinking about handing over one or another route to a Lufthansa affiliate. This exact experiment was already carried out with Eurowings Europe in Vienna in 2018 and 2019, but there was no success, so the routes were returned to the AUA.

Cost of living in Austria is more expensive than in Germany

The Vida union and the Bord works council continue to insist on higher wages for flying staff and point out that company colleagues working in Germany earn significantly more. The cost of living in the Federal Republic is significantly lower than in Austria. Everyday goods in particular, such as food, are significantly cheaper in Germany than in the Alpine republic. Nevertheless, at Lufthansa, for example, flight attendants and pilots are paid higher wages than at Austrian Airlines. It should be critically noted that it was the Vida union that took notice of the fact that the once well-paying Austrian Airlines has developed into a kind of wage dumping site for the Lufthansa Group. The employee representatives have agreed to lower wages in the past and are now faced with the fact that management and the Chamber of Commerce do not want to allow wages to be increased to the extent required.

Mistakes that were made in the past should be corrected with the new collective agreement that is currently being negotiated. The employees want their share of the cake, i.e. the record profits thanks to exorbitantly increased ticket prices. It's not about one-off payments, but about real wage increases that are not devalued by the high inflation in Austria.

Since the views of Austrian Airlines/Chamber of Commerce and Vida/Works Council are very far apart, it is to be expected that there could be another call for a strike and/or invitations to works meetings in the next few days. How exactly you call it is irrelevant for the passengers, because for them it is the result that counts, i.e. the flight cancellation and the fight for replacement transport if you have to travel on exactly that day.