In view of the fact that Austrian Airlines has received state aid once again in the company's history, the reactions to the announcement that another 650 jobs are to be cut are quite violent. The FPÖ calls on Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) to resign.

Really comes as a surprise the announcement by AUA boss Alexis von Hoensbroech but not, because looks at the parent company in Germany clearly show that the corona pandemic has also led to job cuts. Both short-time work and state aid have only covered short-term financial needs, but in the medium term, lower revenues are expected due to weak demand.

Regardless of this, Vida specialist group chairman Daniel Liebhart sees his fears that he expressed in the previous year confirmed: "We warned: Now the badly concluded negotiations by the government without a job guarantee for the employees on the 450 million Euro state aid for the AUA. With a painful restructuring package, the employees have done their part to save the airline from the Corona crisis. To reward them with further dismissals without job alternatives is just shabby ”.

The trade unionist therefore demands that the AUA management should take responsibility for the workforce and provide alternative jobs within the company or the Lufthansa Group. But Liebhart also expresses criticism in the direction of the federal government: “The constant hopping from one lockdown to the next only creates uncertainty. The government must now finally get going and develop reliable prospects for Vienna as an aviation location and its jobs. We now need sustainable concepts quickly so that aviation can take off again ”.

FPÖ and SPÖ are foaming

Naturally, there is heavy criticism from the opposition. The SPÖ and FPÖ are looking to finance minister Gernot Blümel and Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (both ÖVP) to blame for the job cuts. The government would have allowed itself to be ripped off. The opposition is a thorn in the side that the government has not secured a stake in Austrian Airlines or the parent company Lufthansa.

“Blümel has waived shares, he has waived a location guarantee and an employment guarantee. In Blümel's AUA rescue package, the protection of workers is not included, but the finance minister has ensured that management can pay out generous bonuses. The SPÖ has demanded a legal ban on bonus payments, we have demanded that the republic must get a stake in AUA parent Lufthansa in order to rescue the AUA and that there must be an employment guarantee. ÖVP Chancellor Kurz and his chief negotiator Blümel rejected our proposals. Kurz and Blümel left the employees in the lurch and only saved the manager bonuses at the AUA, ”said SPÖ traffic spokesman in an initial reaction.

Dominik Nepp, head of the FPÖ Vienna, expressed himself much more drastically in a broadcast. Blümel acted as the “savior of the AUA and its jobs” last year and now he has to “answer for this disaster”. The member of the government would have been a “scandal minister” and “became intolerable after the current AUA failure and has to take his hat off immediately”.

“In June 2020, Blümel and Kurz threw the AUA - and thus the German Lufthansa - 600 million euros down the throat. As a consequence, a further 650 employees are being cut. For every million Blümel and Kurz rescue workers, there is now one less job. This is a special class scandal and must at least lead to Blümel's resignation. Blümel and Kurz failed completely in the negotiations and did not permanently secure the AUA headquarters, which is so important for Vienna. The German Lufthansa managers demonstrated the ÖVP amateur troop. The AUA employees, who are now facing job loss, suffer, ”said Nepp.