The labor action started in Rostov-na-Donu on April 9. Workers at other airports joined the strike in preceding days, and the airports affected now include Murmansk, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg and several other cities, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.
In a statement the Federal Union of Air Traffic Controllers of Russia says that the State ATM Corporation, The federal agency that manages flights in Russian airspace, avoids to implement the collective agreement and sign a new one, that it systematically violates the guarantees of trade union activities and that “deceit, intimidations, blackmail and totalitarian method of management in regard to dissident workers are ordinary practice in the State ATM Corporation”.
It also states that “flight safety management is not a priority in the State ATM Corporation”.
The hunger strike is partial, which means that the air traffic controllers do not eat during off-duty hours. They do not fast at work because flight safety has to be ensured.
There is no information at the moment on how the protest is affecting air traffic in the northern parts of Russia.
