AIR FRANCE industrial issues
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Rwy in Sight
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AIR FRANCE industrial issues
It seems that Air France management try to turn the company around but cutting some routes and impose tougher conditions on some staff but unfortuntely some job cuts as well. What is the opinion of the collective mind here in these knowledgeable forum?
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Capetonian
Re: AIR FRANCE industrial issues
Air France and the other French parastatals have a proud record of going on strike, blackmailing the government, which gives in and gives the strikers what they want. It's an ongoing way of life in the socialist republic of France and is a catastrophic policy in the long term. I only hope AF do not drag KLM down with them.
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Ex-Ascot
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Re: AIR FRANCE industrial issues
KLM sure, but Air France 
Never saw one of their aircraft on 'D' Day!
Never saw one of their aircraft on 'D' Day!'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.
Re: AIR FRANCE industrial issues
A colleague (half french) has a great saying. "As happy as a French father who just found out his son has gone on strike for the very first time".
Another former colleague who is a pilot for Air France paints a very different picture to that of the media's.
His take on it.
""interesting" is the least you can say about the negotiation techniques being used lately. I really don't know which way it's going to go now. Management proposed a "Plan A" where the company would grow if the pilots increased their productivity by 17%, or "Plan B" where the company would shrink and people would even be laid off. Then they gave the pilot unions about a week to negotiate. The unions refused the proposals from management (work more, get paid the same) and proposed their own (less management pilots, cut down on unnecessary ground activities used by management to spread their messages, voluntary extra flights, etc...) which according to management amounted to something like less than 5% of productivity gains. So they just declared they would go to plan B.
They probably hoped that ground personnel would blame the pilots and revolt against them, but the opposite happened, as you saw. It wasn't pilots tearing up the clothes of those execs...
Now they are negotiating again. I think (hope) the whole plan A/B thing was just a ploy to put people under pressure, and we'll get something a little more acceptable in a few weeks. I just hope we don't have to go into strikes again, but I'm not very optimistic there. During last year's strike, a deal was found between the negotiators after just a few days, but De Juniac simply refused. A few more attempts were made, but De Juniac repeated "Njet" every time. The strike was finally ended after two weeks when the unions realised that every single one of their proposals was shot down and there was no way De Juniac was going to give in, he didn't seem to care what happened to the company. Then, a few weeks after the strike, we ended up with pretty much the deal that had already been found after two days of strike. De Juniac simpy didn't want to give the impression that the unions got their way because of the strike, and that strikes were pointless. So that's the way that guy operates, he's a ruthless poker player.
There are theories that "Plan B" was really plan A because they knew very well that the pilots would never accept the proposals for 17%, and this is just a way of blaming the pilots for what management wanted to do all along. They really seem intent on shrinking the company as much as they can. Which is stupid, because the debts remain the same and will be harder to pay off with a smaller company, and the relative importance of fixed costs goes up if the company shrinks. A study has shown that even loss making routes pay their share of fixed costs, and losses would actually increase if those lines were cut, not to mention the effect of those cuts on the number of passengers transfering to other, profitable routes, but management doesn't care."
Another former colleague who is a pilot for Air France paints a very different picture to that of the media's.
His take on it.
""interesting" is the least you can say about the negotiation techniques being used lately. I really don't know which way it's going to go now. Management proposed a "Plan A" where the company would grow if the pilots increased their productivity by 17%, or "Plan B" where the company would shrink and people would even be laid off. Then they gave the pilot unions about a week to negotiate. The unions refused the proposals from management (work more, get paid the same) and proposed their own (less management pilots, cut down on unnecessary ground activities used by management to spread their messages, voluntary extra flights, etc...) which according to management amounted to something like less than 5% of productivity gains. So they just declared they would go to plan B.
They probably hoped that ground personnel would blame the pilots and revolt against them, but the opposite happened, as you saw. It wasn't pilots tearing up the clothes of those execs...
Now they are negotiating again. I think (hope) the whole plan A/B thing was just a ploy to put people under pressure, and we'll get something a little more acceptable in a few weeks. I just hope we don't have to go into strikes again, but I'm not very optimistic there. During last year's strike, a deal was found between the negotiators after just a few days, but De Juniac simply refused. A few more attempts were made, but De Juniac repeated "Njet" every time. The strike was finally ended after two weeks when the unions realised that every single one of their proposals was shot down and there was no way De Juniac was going to give in, he didn't seem to care what happened to the company. Then, a few weeks after the strike, we ended up with pretty much the deal that had already been found after two days of strike. De Juniac simpy didn't want to give the impression that the unions got their way because of the strike, and that strikes were pointless. So that's the way that guy operates, he's a ruthless poker player.
There are theories that "Plan B" was really plan A because they knew very well that the pilots would never accept the proposals for 17%, and this is just a way of blaming the pilots for what management wanted to do all along. They really seem intent on shrinking the company as much as they can. Which is stupid, because the debts remain the same and will be harder to pay off with a smaller company, and the relative importance of fixed costs goes up if the company shrinks. A study has shown that even loss making routes pay their share of fixed costs, and losses would actually increase if those lines were cut, not to mention the effect of those cuts on the number of passengers transfering to other, profitable routes, but management doesn't care."
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Ibbie
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Re: AIR FRANCE industrial issues
From Travelmole today;
- Air France has suspended five workers implicated in the attack on its executives which led to their shirts being ripped and escaping over a fence.
A spokesman for the airline said yesterday that 20 employees are the subject of disciplinary hearings with five suspended ahead of a trial in northern Paris on December 2 for aggravated violence.