On Monday, Swissport Finland’s cargo handling services were hit by a walkout of employees. This caused disruptions in cargo handling services at Vantaa Airport. The Chairman of the Civil Aviation Workers’ Union, Joel Zeppelin, stated that the employees stopped work at Finnair’s Cool Cargo terminal. He also mentioned that workers responsible for luggage loading and unloading at RTG Ground Handling and Aviator also joined the strike on Monday. The goal was to prevent a walkout by RTG and Aviator workers.
Zeppelin represents the professional section, which includes workers from various areas such as loading, ground services, security checks, and flight maintenance at Aviator, Swissport Finland, and RTG Ground Handling. The impact of the strike was felt as there were delays in flights with one reporter reporting a delay of about 45 minutes on a Finnair flight.
The reason behind the walkout was Finnair’s decision to withdraw an airline ticket benefit for subcontractor employees providing ground services. This benefit was replaced with a weaker partner ticket, causing dissatisfaction among the staff. Zeppelin stated that this decision led to protests from subcontractor employees last year in September. However, no specific information is available about the duration and scope of the disruption caused by this walkout at Vantaa Airport.
The airport authorities are working towards resolving this issue to minimize disruptions to flight schedules.
