Austrian union calls for strike action at Vienna airport

Austrian trade union Vida is launching a new offensive aimed at Vienna International Airport that it says could involve strikes, but support across airline employees based at the fast-growing airport seems weak. VIDA wants to protest against want it calls the "escalating distortions of competition and exploitation of airline staff through wage and social dumping.” Vienna has seen record numbers of passengers in the first five months of 2019, with totals up 25% versus 2018 to 11.7m. Traffic growth is expected to continue, fueled by an influx of LCCs. Vida is looking to create a cross-industry collective agreement for pilots and flights attendants. But the aviation unit of the department of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKOE) said in a statement it did not see a need for such an agreement given the global operations of the airlines now serving Vienna. Vienna-based LaudaMotion and Eurowings Europe each have their own collective agreements; while Wizz Air is headquartered in Hungary and says it does not need a collective agreement for its Vienna base. Austrian Airlines and Level also do not expect their employees to participate in any strike action.<br/>