Turkish Airlines faces the prospect of major disruption today due to strike action after negotiations with the country’s main aviation workers union collapsed.
The carrier admitted yesterday that it failed to reach an agreement on a labour dispute “due to uncompromising and imposing approaches of the union.”
The airline urged staff to “disregard” the proposed strike called by Turkish civil aviation union Hava-Is.
It accused Hava-Is of “trying to plunge Turkish Airlines and its employees into an indefinite strike adventure which will benefit nobody”.
But union president Atilay Aycin told CNN: “All of Turkish Airlines’ functions will stop, no passenger flights, no cargo services, no connecting flights.
“All sectors starting with the tourism industry who are doing business with Turkish Airlines will be affected.”
Hava-Is, which represents 14,000 Turkish Airlines workers, has been negotiating salaries and rest periods for long flights, which the union’s president claims do not meet international standards.