Icelandic cabin crew are “completely unanimous” in rejecting Icelandair’s new contract offer, according to a notice from the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association. The group’s chairperson Guðlaug Líney Jóhannsdóttir told RÚV the contract entails a five-year salary freeze, increased workload and less vacation time.
The Icelandic Cabin Crew Association’s board consulted members at a lunchtime meeting today, where it says all members were “completely opposed to outright overturning the current wage agreement and sacrificing the terms and rights that have taken decades to build up.”
Guðlaug says cabin crew last received a wage increase in 2018, and the proposed contract did not account for one until 2023 – effectively a five-year wage freeze. The wage hike in 2023 would also be dependent on whether Icelandair makes a profit. Cabin crew would receive a one-time payment of ISK 202,000 ($1,380/€1,270), but this would also depend on the success of Icelandair’s planned public stock offering.
Sigrún Jónsdóttir, head of the ICCA’s negotiation committee, says flight crew wages are not what’s burdening Icelandair. “The responsibility for Icelandair’s bankruptcy will not at any time be placed on the shoulders of the members of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association,” she stated. “We are not a millstone around the company’s neck.”
In its statement, the association reiterated its “willingness to negotiate with Icelandair while the current situation persists” anf that it “is still open to discussion on fair changes to the current wage agreement.”
