Hardened ones Fronts at the AUA: On Friday there were again discussions at various levels, but no negotiations. Apparently even the concession to negotiate would be too far-reaching. One side or the other could lose face. As a reminder: The AUA negotiations started in mid-January – around three months ago.
In concrete terms, this means: There is no date for another official one round of negotiationsbut also no more Strike announcement on the part of the union. This only came to an agreement on Thursday “after intensive negotiations” with representatives of the employers’ side KV qualification for airports agreed. There will be seven percent for employees as of May 1st. The inflation rate of 6.34 percent over the past twelve months served as the basis.
At Vienna Airport, one of the main victims of the AUA conflict, they are hoping for a step forward for a possible agreement at the AUA. A manager, who did not want to be named, said: “There are only losers in this dispute. Only Mr O’Leary in Dublin is having a laugh with his Ryanair.”
Damage disproportionate
Airport boss Günther Ofner, who is also aviation spokesman in the Chamber of Commerce, assumes that a solution will come, indeed must come, between AUA management and the vida union. The damage is too great for the total of 70,000 employees if you add all the suppliers and service providers around the Vienna Schwechat location to the AUA and the airport.
Ofner said to the KURIER: “With every day of the strike, the damage for everyone involved at the airport increases disproportionately. The anger of the passengers is increasing, the tour operators and travel agencies are foaming at the mouth. It’s all the responsibility of the ground staff who get the customers on the phone.”
If no agreement is reached and, contrary to expectations, there is another strike, the AUA conflict has the potential to become a negative frontrunner in the domestic market Economic history enter into. What remains in the collective memory is the largest strike in recent history, in which around 800,000 employees demonstrated against the pension and ÖBB reforms of Schwarz-Blau I under Wolfgang Schüssel in 2003.
The one back then Railway workers’ strike in November 2003 lasted 66 hours. After a warning strike and the most recent “real” strike at Easter, the AUA is sticking to 40 hours. 2003 was Wilhelm Haberzettl top railway workers’ union, today it is Roman Hebenstreitwho, as Vida boss, also directs the AUA industrial dispute in the background.
The latest status of negotiations looks like this: The AUA is offering retroactively for 2024 as of March 1, eight percent. For the years 2025 and 2026 it is five percent each.
What annoys the union is the fact that the AUA sees the five percent as including future inflation.
WIFO is planning one for 2025 inflation rate of 2.7 percent expected (2023: 7.8 percent, 2024: 3.8 percent).
This means: If inflation really falls to 2.7 percent on average in 2025, AUA employees will have an average real wage increase of 2.3 percent (the difference to the five percent offered).
However, if inflation does not fall, the workforce bears the risk of contracting a health insurance agreement that is below the price increase. This problem could be solved relatively easily with a clause in which employees are promised a fixed surcharge on inflation in 2025 – if there is enough good will.