The strike calls, reported earlier by French news site La Tribune, pose a new challenge to plans by Air France-KLM Chief Executive Ben Smith to cut back the French carrier’s loss-making domestic network and restore its profitability.
The Franco-Dutch airline group had no immediate comment on the planned industrial action, a spokesman said.
Following a Tuesday works council, French ground-staff unions said they were maintaining a call for Feb. 21-22 strikes and stoppages at Paris Orly and provincial airports, as the SNPL pilots’ union called a first strike by Hop pilots for Feb. 24.
“Ground staff have made all the efforts asked of them, but it’s never enough,” five staff unions said in a joint statement.
The CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT, FO and UNSA unions also expressed concern about widespread job outsourcing and called for new hires and transfers to fill gaps left by voluntary buyouts.
The pilots have rejected a management pay proposal that amounts to a 3% overall increase, according to La Tribune. An SNPL union official was not immediately available.
Air France labor relations have seen a period of relative calm since CEO Smith’s arrival in 2018, after a wave of strikes that cost 335 million euros ($362 million) and forced his predecessor out. He now plans to cut the short-haul fleet to 50-60 aircraft from 70 and close the worst-performing routes.
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