A walkout by Swissport Finland’s cargo handling services has led to disruptions in flights at Helsinki-Vantaa airport on Monday. The Chairman of the Civil Aviation Workers’ Union, Joel Zeppelin, announced that employees responsible for luggage loading and unloading at RTG Ground Handling and Aviator also stopped work on Monday. The aim was to avoid a walkout of employees from RTG and Aviator.
The professional section represented by Zeppelin includes workers from various areas like loading, ground services, security checks, and flight maintenance at Aviator, Swissport Finland, and RTG Ground Handling. The reason behind the walkout is related to Finnair no longer offering an airline ticket benefit to subcontractor employees providing ground services. This benefit was replaced by a weaker partner ticket, causing discontent among the employees.
The impact of the walkout on flights is being monitored without any concrete information about the duration and scope of the disruption. One reporter mentioned a delay of about 45 minutes on a Finnair flight due to the walkout. The airport authorities are working towards resolving the issue to minimize disruptions to flight schedules.
