SAS Dismissses Union Leader

SAS - Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark-Norway-Sweden (SAS) today dismissed, with immediate effect, the chair of the SAS section of the Swedish Pilot Union (SPF), Captain Mattias Åman Thiel, who represents more than 400 SAS members.

SAS has not provided any grounds for its decision. During consultations under Section 30 of the Swedish Employment Protection Act (LAS), SAS alleged that the elected union representative had failed to carry out his union duties during scheduled time, limited to nine isolated days over the past three years.
SPF firmly rejects SAS’s unfounded claims. SPF has provided SAS with documentation showing that on the days in question Mattias Åman Thiel performed his union work in accordance with the practice that for decades has applied to elected representatives at SAS and other Swedish airlines. There is no system at SAS for time reporting of union work, and union work is not performed under the employer’s direction and control. For flight crew, union work cannot, for obvious reasons, routinely be carried out at the ordinary workplace.

SAS’s unfounded dismissal is an infringement of the right to organize and is the latest and most serious attack in a series of efforts to undermine the influence of the unions. SPF views the dismissal in a broader context in which SAS systematically and actively obstructs union work and, in addition, breaches existing collective agreements — conduct that has led to numerous court cases involving a large number of collective-agreement violations.

As recently as March, the Swedish Labor Court found that SAS had breached the collective agreement and awarded damages both to affected members and to SPF. Five months later, SAS is now dismissing the chair of SPF’s SAS section.
SAS management has also targeted the chair of the Norwegian pilots’ union, NSF, by issuing an unfounded written warning and threatening employees with personal consequences if they do not remain silent. The Norwegian union, with the involvement of the national labor organization LO, has likewise taken legal action against SAS.

SPF is immediately taking legal action to have the dismissal declared invalid and will request that Mattias Åman Thiel’s employment remain in effect while the dispute is heard.

“This is a frontal assault on the labor movement and on our elected representative, Mattias Åman Thiel. It is completely unacceptable for SAS to dismiss an elected union official by citing the way he has carried out his legally protected union duties. When an employer attacks an elected representative in this way, it threatens the entire Swedish model,” says Tristan Okkonen, President of the Swedish Pilot Union.

SPF will continue its essential work for flight safety, secure employment, and order and accountability in the Swedish aviation market.

For more information or questions, contact:
Press coordinator
+46 70-418 05 47 • spf@swealpa.se