Скачать или смотреть Pilots and flight attendants walk out in row over layoffs and wages

(14 May 2013)
1. Wide of deserted check-in area at Zagreb International airport
2. Mid of flight schedule display
3. Close of the display
4. Wide of airport interior
5. Mid of passengers
6. Various of grounded aircraft
7. Pan of airplanes
8. Mid of passengers in front of Croatia Airlines advertising billboard
9. Wide exterior of Croatia Airlines headquarters
10. Close of Croatia Airlines sign on the company headquarters
11. Wide of cabin crews on strike outside company headquarters
12. Mid of striking crews
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Bozidar Andrasek, captain on Airbus 320:
"The company required from us that we'll, let's say, have less salaries, less annual leave, less free days during the season."
14. Mid of cabin crews in strike in front of the company headquarters
15. Close of a pilot on strike
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Bozidar Andrasek, captain on Airbus 320:
"Croatia Airlines has a lot of potential. As a union and all the people here we have good faith in the company, so we think that according to what do we have in Croatia, we have a seaside, we have landside, we have five or six airports, so there is huge potential over here."
17. Mid of pilots on strike
18. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Tanja Miric, stewardess:
"This company certainly has a potential for success, but I fear that with this management there are no good results and solutions to our problems."
19. Fighter jet flying over grounded Croatia Airlines airplanes
STORYLINE:
Croatia Airlines pilots and flight attendants went on strike on Tuesday over planned salary cuts and layoffs that are part of efforts to restructure the loss-making state carrier ahead of the country's European Union entry.
The indefinite strike cancelled some 25 international and domestic flights scheduled for Tuesday.
Most of the passengers who purchased tickets for those flights have been put on flights by other airlines.
The troubled airline that operates 13 planes has largely survived on government subsidies which will no longer be allowed after Croatia joins the EU on July 1.
The carrier's debt is estimated at 150 million euros (194 million US dollars.)
Croatia Airlines management said the company could go bankrupt if it does not cut costs by reducing salaries as proposed in a new collective agreement given to some 1,000 employees.
The agreement also proposes fewer rest days for the cabin crews, and limits their vacations during the peak of the summer season.
The striking pilots and flight attendants say the salary cuts would range between 20 and 40 percent, if they accepted the new agreement.
Bozidar Andrasek, a pilot union leader, said wages represent only about 10 to 15 percent of the company's current expenses.
Croatia Airlines management threatened to fire 42 flight attendants, a quarter of its cabin crew, after they all took sick leave at the same time earlier this month to protest the proposed cut in their salaries.
Tanja Miric, one of the stewardesses staging a protest in front of the company headquarters near the Zagreb airport on Tuesday, said some cabin attendants would have their salaries cut by 40 percent.
"This company has a potential for success, but I fear that with this management there is no solution for our problems," she said.
Croatia has faced with a spate of work stoppages as it prepares to become EU's 28th member.
Also announcing strikes are state railroad company workers, as well as public sector employees who are paid from the national budget that has been under EU scrutiny and austerity demands.


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