Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.04.2019, Blaðsíða 4

What Are Icelanders
Talking About
The latest cheers and jeers
on social media
Words: Andie Fontaine Photo: Wikipedia
The hottest story of the
past couple weeks here
in Iceland has been the end of
the strikes of hotel workers and
bus drivers for the unions Elfing,
VR, and aligned unions, culminat-
ing in the signing of a collective
bargaining agreement. While
the agreement fell short of all the
unions’ demands, one of the more
glaring details was the timing. The
unions had postponed planned
strike actions on March 27, attrib-
uted to “a new basis for talks, which
has now been presented on behalf
of the employers’ association.”
The next day, WOW Air ceased
all operations and announced its
bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter,
unions and management were able
to work out a deal. If it looks like
these events are connected, well,
congrats on your powers of obser-
vation.
Speaking of WOW Air, it seems
we haven’t seen the last of the
company’s CEO, Skúli Mogensen.
While it’s true the airline filed
for bankruptcy, its corpse wasn’t
even cold before he announced
his intent to start a new airline,
tentatively called “NewCo.” This
airline is planning on picking up
many of the routes WOW Air used
to service, both in Europe and
North America, but there’s just one
small catch: Skúli needs 40 million
USD to get things off the ground.
To raise this capital, he is report-
edly turning to crowdfunding as
a strategy. Meanwhile, many of the
1,100 workers he laid off are still
looking for jobs.
Public transit company Strætó
took a brave step that has report-
edly paid off in a major way: offer-
ing free day passes on high air
pollution days, also known as
“grey days.” Air pollution has been
a pervasive problem in Reykjavík
and health officials have repeat-
edly pointed out that one of the best
ways to reduce these emissions is
to get more people to use public
transit. April 8th was the first
such grey day since the feature was
introduced to the Strætó smart-
phone app, and it proved wildly
popular; 5,140 people made use of
the free day pass, with some 1,846
using the app for the first time. Is
it bad we’re praying for more air
pollution?
The four current and former
members of Sigur Rós arrived in
Reykjavík District Court to answer
to charges of tax evasion and tax
fraud that have been filed against
them. Financial scandal has dogged
Sigur Rós for over a year now,
culminating in tax evasion charges
last year, which were later dropped.
The band has denied any wrongdo-
ing, but the state reportedly has a
strong case against them, and they
stand accused of failing to report
on revenue and capital gains totally
in the tens of millions of krónur.
The trial begins on May 20th.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 05— 2019First
A pollution protection bubble for when you're not in the house
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