Wizz Air – Nonsense to call Wizz Air trash

Trade unions, joint agreements and the right to strike are concepts that are well established in the Norwegian spinal cord. Therefore, I can understand that the political reflex is shaken when someone comes from outside and says that “we don’t do that.” But calling Wizz Air trash for that reason is silly, as long as the crown example of this in European aviation is Norwegian. Or Norwegian, as they call themselves.

Those with some long-term memory You may remember the pilot strike in the spring of 2015. The pilots wanted better job protection. After costing their employer large sums and ruining the travel experience of hundreds of thousands of Norwegians, thanks to the effort, they were transferred to an employment agency. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court as perfectly legal a couple of years later.

– Erna’s Moral Index Finger

Now Norwegian has declared the agencies bankrupt, fired almost all of them, and escaped the entire bill. That’s silly.

While operating the “new Norwegian” More and more creative financial stunts for Norwegian taxpayers to accept the bill, Wizz Air is knocking on the door and wants to get in without costing a penny. New jobs will be created and those who travel will receive a good offer. But this is clearly not how we should have it in this country.

In a country that we are used to To pay double, plus VAT, for everything, it’s easy to believe that something gurgles when airline tickets are issued for a hundred dollars each. “Social dumping and labor exploitation,” shout the unions. But it is very far from the truth.

Welcome to the complaints club!

Those of us who work at Wizz Air have local employment contract in the country where we are employed, and we have a direct employment relationship with the company. The salary is competitive and the relationship is orderly. Local labor laws apply. I work in the UK and have a completely normal employment relationship under UK law. Colleagues from other European countries have the same in their respective countries.

Low cost is not the same as social dumping. By keeping expenses low and operating efficiently, we can offer affordable travel. It offers many more people the opportunity to travel, the market expands and more jobs are created. Without the opportunity to offer lower prices, there would have been far fewer pilots and cabin crew working. It’s that easy.

Internally, Wizz Air has a great social commitment. We have company parties, Christmas dinners, leisure activities and bosses who speak to us directly. Although Wizz Air is beginning to become an adult company, the culture is more like a startup. When Oslo and Trondheim were announced as new bases, it received a lot of attention. Not because Eastern Europeans finally came to Norway and formed a union, but because Wizz Air already flies to various destinations in Norway, and many colleagues have been here on vacation.

Imagine that, Polish and Hungarian cabin crew on vacation in Norway! They can afford it and our tickets are cheap.

Volunteering sucks

Of course i don’t care Unions have contributed a lot over the years, but to say that those who are not unionized are exploited, and that companies without unions are rubbish, is silly. In fact, it is possible to operate correctly without.

If Erna doesn’t want to travel with us yet, that’s fine, but I hope she at least pays for the plane ticket herself.

Here’s how Norwegian responds:

At Norwegian, we are now concentrating on securing our 2,300 jobs in Norway to maintain critical infrastructure in Norway and connect our country with routes from Kristiansand in the south to Svalbard in the north. We will also maintain a network of international routes so that we can bring tourists to Norway, transport Norwegians to the world and ensure that the export industry can bring their products to the international market.

Our employees have always had competitive wages and working conditions and the vast majority have been unionized with a collective agreement, whether they have worked in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England or Spain. The Konrona situation has paralyzed much of the air traffic around the world and has sadly affected more than 8,000 of our colleagues, including in Sweden where our subsidiary went bankrupt earlier this year.

Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen, Chief Information Officer, Norwegian