HELSINKI—Finnair pilots began a strike on Monday that has grounded all the Finnish national carrier's international and domestic flights, affecting thousands of passengers.
The strike came after the union representing more than 750 pilots on Saturday rejected a mediation proposal by the national conciliator, following months of fruitless labor contract talks.
Finnair, which operates some 200 daily flights, said it has canceled more than 400 departures so far, affecting 32,000 passengers.
The airline began cancelations on Sunday, particularly of long-haul flights and some to European cities that were to have returned on Monday. Most of Tuesday's regular flights also will be called off, it said.
"Finnair aims to operate all of its leisure flights regardless of the strike," the airline said, adding that its code-share partners will fly to and from Helsinki as normal despite the strike.
Finnair, which has been struggling in the recession with declining demand, competition from low-cost airlines and overcapacity, says its daily losses will amount to euro2-3 million ($3-4.5 million). The strike will now "force it to come up with totally new solutions in order to secure the future of the company," it said.
The Finnish Airline Pilots' Association said union leaders had unanimously rejected National Conciliator Esa Lonka's mediation proposal because it did not address the issue of using non-company personnel.
"The issue is not about money. The question that was unanswered was the outsourcing issue," said association president Kristian Rintala. "We have a lot of (Finnair) pilots who are out of a job at the moment ... and Finnair would have started Finnair flights today with other crews than Finnair crews."
Finnair spokesman Taneli Hassinen has denied they were planning "to allow outside employees into Finnair cockpits," but said the airline needs to be able to use non-company employees "in certain market conditions."
Lonka, who mediated the talks, indicated that both sides wanted to return to the negotiating table but said that no timetable had been planned.
The airline has said it will begin statutory talks with all its 9,000 personnel to initiate more cost-cutting measures, after doubling an annual savings program to euro200 million -- with most of the new cuts aimed at personnel.
Finnair personnel rejected proposals in 2008 for pay cuts to help the airline and the company axed 500 jobs. This year, Finnair cut 200 jobs and in April began temporary layoffs for 6,000 workers, spread out through 2009.
Finnair, which is 56 percent government-owned, flies to 50 destinations with a fleet of 63 aircraft. Last year, 8.3 million passengers flew the airline, down 4 percent from 2007.
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