Trade Unions Contribute to Removal of LOT Chair

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A conflict between trade unions and the chair of LOT Polish Airlines, which had been escalating for months, culminated in December 2005 with the dismissal of the latter.

At the end of December 2005, the supervisory board of LOT Polish Airlines dismissed the chief executive officer of the nation’s biggest air carrier, who had for many months led a dispute with the trade unions that represent most of the staff. Although the supervisory board did not say officially what were the reasons of dismissal, three main causes and criticisms are generally quoted:

• the company has lately lost 25% of its share in the market;

• the recent cost-saving (restructuring) programme was mainly about cutting costs with no regard to boosting the company’s revenue; and

• there was no coherent strategy for the future.

In addition, the company faced the risk of a strike by pilots, flight attendants and tech-support staff. If it had taken place, the strike could have been of grave consequence to the carrier, as it had been scheduled for the Christmas holiday season, when the air traffic is intensified. According to analysts, a strike would have become an unexpected Christmas present for the competition, which would do their best to take away the most customers possible from the flag carrier, immobilised by protest actions.

It seems that it was the looming strike that finally pushed the supervisory board to take the decision to part with the CEO and a few other executives. The decision satisfied the unions: '...we are pleased with the board's decision…' the head of the On-Board Staff Trade Union (Zwiąezk Zawodowy Personelu Latającego i Pokładowego, ZZPLP) told reporters, and added that '...The State Treasury' (PLL LOT’s 68% shareholder) 'representative shared the opinion that the new CEO should be a person who can get along well with employees. We hope that the situation will start to improve. We've just finished the strike referendum, but we will suspend the decision about the strike until we see the effects of the work of the new managing board…'

The staff’s expectations are not low. Most of all, the trade unions want LOT to stop pumping money into its subsidiaries. Next, the company should also break free from Lufthansa and start deciding about its own market. In the unions’ opinion, the new board members should have strong personalities and be able to fight for independence from the Star Alliance on those routes that might become LOT’s specialty. The State Treasury Ministry (Ministerstwo Skarbu Państwa, MSP) representative responsible for LOT has asked employees and trade unions to give the new executives six months to take a grip of the situation and introduce changes.

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