On Friday, the Austrian airline Lauda announced the closure of the Vienna base and the associated layoffs of around 370 employees. Another 250 flight attendants and pilots are employed by the Austrian branch of the temporary employment agency Crewlink. Now a group of flying personnel, led by the base leader, is organizing a demonstration in front of the union's headquarters. This should take place on Monday.

“The demonstration will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. and aims to protest Vida's failure to sign the collective agreement. We want to know why the will of the majority of the occupation in Vienna is disregarded. We would like to be received by Mr. Daniel Liebhart, 2 members of the flight crew and 2 members of the cabin crew from Possible, to understand their concerns about this collective agreement and to express our own concerns, ”explains Paulo Patena, base supervisor of the Vienna cabin crew. "We expect that 200 crew members and their families, who are also affected by this problem, will take part in this peaceful protest."

The initiators have already made the necessary official registrations and want to hand over an open letter to the Vida head of the Aviation Department, Daniel Liebhart. At the same time, they want to loudly but peacefully express their displeasure about not signing the new collective agreement, which the management uses as a reason for the base closure and the associated terminations. One wants to try to find a solution together with the union on site. The open letter can be downloaded from this link:

Those Lauda employees who organize this demonstration in front of the federal headquarters of Vida hope that a solution can still be found that could lead to the preservation of the Vienna base and jobs. It is not known how many Lauda workers will attend the rally. In any case, the initiators, who belong to the flying personnel, call on all employees to participate.

It is uncertain whether a subsequent compromise could lead to the preservation of jobs in Vienna. On Friday, Lauda Managing Director Andreas Gruber said in an interview with Aviation.Direct that there would have been enough time for negotiations and that the decisions have now been made. In general, the future for the airline is rather unclear. “We hope that this demonstration can set an example for the employees and that we will be able to resolve the situation. There is hope, ”said Patena.