The El Al Israel Airlines Pilots Union today notified its members that negotiations with management over labor conditions, sponsored by the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel), have broken down. The month-long talks focused on excessive work load and deterioration in labor conditions.

Pilots Union chairman Captain Nir Tzuk said, “Management has systematically ignored proposals for streamlining and warnings about the stresses faced by the airline’s pilots and employees.” He warned that management’s disrespect of the employees was making it harder to harness them to work harder by volunteering and personal and family sacrifice.

Tzuk said that implementing the employees’ demands would not involve any extra costs to the airline. “Meeting the pilots’ demands will provide fair labor conditions for all of the airline’s employees, and enable it to carry out its tighly flights plan schedule,” he said.

“Regrettably, talks with management have failed. The CEO has announced that he is not interested in moving forward on issues that are important to the employees, and on which agreements have already been reached. Even issues that are supposed to save the airline millions of dollars, and which have been under discussion for a long time, were recently rejected by the CEO. We feel that ego and personal honor are dictating his position.

“It is important for us to now warn, at the start of the peak season and its hundreds of scheduled flights, that in view of management’s failed conduct, there is concern that flights could be disrupted. We want to express our honest apologies to the passengers if there are any delays. It is important for us to make clear that the future of the national carrier and the safety of its passengers are on the agenda, and we cannot compromise on them.”

(Source: Globes)