Strike-ridden THY posts Q1 sales lift

ISTANBUL

Hava-İş union began a labor strike on May 15 against Turkish Airlines. AFP photo

Turkish Airlines (THY), which has been facing a labor strike since May 15, announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2013.

The company posted 3.6 billion Turkish Liras in sale revenues, with a 28 percent increase in comparison to the same period of last year.

According to a press statement by the company, the net loss of THY decreased to 22 million liras, 24 percent lower than last year’s figure.

“Ten million passengers are carried by us, which constitutes a 26 percent increase. ... Now we are flying to 187 foreign destinations in 99 countries,” the statement said. THY now owns 219 airplanes and plans to have 400-450 airplanes in 10 years.

Hava-İş began a labor strike on May 15 against THY over the company’s alleged failure to accept any of its proposals regarding collective bargaining and its refusal to reinstate 305 sacked workers. The 305 workers were sacked when they protested against a proposed strike ban. The courts had already found in favor of 170 of them and Hava-İş, which represents 14,000 workers of Turkish Airlines’ 15,500 workers, urged the company to allow the rest to return to work.

THY claimed that operations continued as planned after the May 15 strike had begun, with aircraft leaving on time, but the union alleges that the company may undermine flight safety and that it has documents to support this claim.

THY invited the union to sign the 24th Collective Bargaining Agreement until May 22, otherwise the company made a reasonable raise in the THY workers’ fee on the basis of the 23rd Collective Bargaining Agreement, by a written statement on May 18. The union representatives, then, announced that they had found the company’s written statement “disrespectful” both to the THY workers and the legal status of the union.

“We are ready to discuss the controversial issues from the beginning with the company without destroying mutual respect and we are open to negotiate so as to end the strike if we reach a common ground,” the union said.