SAS airline pilots warn of potential strike from late June

Some 1,000 SAS pilots in Denmark, Norway and Sweden could go on strike from late June over disagreements on wages and ways to cut costs at the struggling Nordic airline, labour unions said, drawing a sharp rebuke from the company. "We have been negotiating for months without being able to agree," Danish Pilot Union leader Henrik Thyregod said in a statement on Thursday. "We have gone to great lengths to help SAS, and we have offered the company huge savings. But we can under no circumstances agree to deteriorations (or wage cuts) of more than 30%, which SAS demands," he said. Unions and management have negotiated since last November and the collective agreement between the airline and the SAS Pilot Group union expired on April 1. If an agreement is not possible, Danish pilots could go on strike from June 24 but would likely wait until June 29 when Swedish pilots can strike at the earliest according to local regulation, Danish chief negotiator Keld Baekkelund told Reuters. The news comes at a difficult time for loss-making SAS, which seeks to restructure its business by undertaking large cost cuts, raising new cash and converting debt to equity as part of a plan to rescue the carrier from collapse. "We think this is totally outrageous and shocking and shows a lack of understanding," an SAS spokesperson said, adding that the company was still hoping that it would not come to an actual strike.<br/>