Johannesburg - SA Airways (SAA) has put in place contingency plans ahead of a scheduled National Transport Movement (NTM) strike, the airline said on Thursday.
Friday's strike would not affect flights and not all the union's members would participate, SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
The NTM alleged that SAA refused to recognise it, even though it had 1 300 members.
The union's secretary general Craig Nte told Business Day the airline's executive committee and board were divided on whether to recognise the union.
Tlali denied the claim and said the NTM was not recognised as it did not meet certain requirements.
"NTM relies on a claim that its membership is more than 1 300. Their membership is inclusive of employee categories that are not provided for in the bargaining forum constitution.
"They have included managers and contract employees in their head-count. They have not met the requisite threshold of 30%, or 1 220, non-managerial permanent employees," he said.
Tlali said that in similar situations in the past, unions had also been denied recognition.
SAA has around 11 000 employees.
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