Budapest - Management at Budapest's strikebound Ferihegy International Airport presented unions with a "ready to sign" draft compromise agreement, for which they have given unions until 10 am (0900 GMT) on Thursday to sign. Union leaders promptly called the move an "ultimatum" and said the strike would continue.
"The agreement offers an conciliatory solution to all disputed questions, so once it is accepted there will be no obstacle to ending the week-long airport strike," said the airport operator Budapest Airport (BA) in a statement.
However, the leader of the strike committee, Zoltan Kovacs, showed no inclination to sign the document. He described the negotiating style of Budapest Airport CEO Jost Lammers as "arrogant" and called BA's draft agreement an "ultimatum."
Kovacs said told the local news agency MTI that at the end of negotiations the CEO "threw" down the document and left, so there was no time to look it over or discuss its individual points. He said the strike will definitely continue until 10 am Thursday, when unions will once again sit down at the negotiating table with management.
Despite the ongoing strike, there were no cancellations at Hungary's only major international airport on Wednesday, in stark contrast to the chaos at the end of last week.
"The traffic situation at the airport has improved significantly, although for now terminal 2B is the only one handling passengers, which it is doing without any big delays," said BA spokesman Domokos Szollar.
The firm said that 200 of 299 employees had turned up for work. Disruption to services was further alleviated by a team of Greek security personnel, who have been working at the airport since Monday.
The controversial move by management of bringing in subcontracted foreign labour to break the strike prompted immediate outrage followed by official protests from domestic, Greek and international trade union organizations.
Airport staff went on strike on December 10 in an attempt to force BA to end a restructuring programme and sign a new collective employment contract. Unions also want backdated overtime payments and a pledge from management that there will be no job cuts before 2010 and no further outsourcing.
