Zurich / Basel: Another important milestone for SWISS: the members of the Aeropers pilots’ union have clearly accepted the new Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) for the pilots:  83% of the members voted in favour of the CLA, 17% against. The result was announced by the Aeropers Board at the 57th General Assembly on Tuesday evening.

The new Collective Labour Agreement provides for reductions in salary and pension fund obligations of 35%. The CLA thus complies with the requirements of the SWISS Business Plan which were approved by the Government and industry investors at the end of last year. Because of the cutbacks, the outcome of the vote was awaited with suspense by both the Aeropers Board and by SWISS. The vote was carried out in recent weeks by means of written voting slips. The participation was 94%.

SWISS and Aeropers are pleased that the former Swissair pilots, by means of this vote, have produced a positive sign for the new Swiss airline. The result demonstrates to the taxpayers and investors the esteem in which SWISS, the new Swiss airline, holds them. Aeropers business Manager Christoph Ulrich is relieved: “Our members realised the seriousness of the situation and came to the conclusion that both they and SWISS needed this Collective Labour Agreement. In recent weeks, Aeropers has been making considerable efforts to convince its members to accept the CLA. After the sceptical remarks made about the CLA at the outset, the far-sightedness and the professionalism of the former Swissair pilot corps prevailed during the course of the voting campaign, which is now reflected in an extremely positive way in the voting result.

At SWISS, also, the voting result was received positively: “I congratulate Aeropers and its members on the outstanding voting result. I am very relieved. It’s a superb basis for our co-operation. I hope that the former Crossair pilots, grouped in the CCP union, will vote in favour of the CLA”, says SWISS CEO André Dosé. The CCP had challenged the validity of the CLA negotiated by SWISS and the Aeropers Board before an Arbitrator. The new CLA offers salary improvements totalling 16% over the current CLA (in addition to the salary increase of about 28% in the year 2001.

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