Air France: new clash between management and the SNPL

The negotiations to establish the new terms of the Perform Plan are going to be tense.

According to the Figaro, the management of Air France decided to make an interim order against the majority union, the SNPL, in order to obtain the last measures of the Transform Plan.

“It has been over six months that the talks were on hold. I cannot wait any longer. We have to know how to finish old quarrels and close the Transform Chapter to move forward,” declared Frédéric Gagey during an event for the second anniversary of Hop! Air France on Monday, June 15th.

He assures that it is in no way an aggressive measure while regretting on having to reach that point.

“Considering the current context and the pressures on the unit revenues, we have to act quickly,” he adds.

The first measures are coming fast. This Winter 2015, the company is going to close down various deficient lines (Stavanger, Verone, Vigo, Kuala Lumpur), and reduce the frequencies to other strongly affected ones (Japan, Brazil, Russia.)

The company is also expecting new cuts on external expenses and general purchases, for an impact estimated in a full year of 80 million euros.

It should also take out a third Airbus A340 from the fleet and anticipates rescheduling the delivery of long-haul planes (Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.)

As for pilots, the company believes that they should make 30% more efforts to arrive to the same stage as the other categories of personnel.

But the Union is disapproving these numbers.

“Let’s take the example the Age and job-skill coefficient (increase of the average salary) we lowered our minium to 0.6% but the management disapproves our way of calculating,” assures the president of the SNPL, Erick Derivry.

Furthermore, he says being surprised after learning about these judicial procedures in the press. “We are shocked by the violence of the procedure. It is a very clumsy way of putting pressure on us just two days before the opening of the negotiations of the Perform Plan.”

Thus, a true battle over numbers is taking place in front of the court. The SNPL asserts feeling confident on the issue of this arbitration and assures wanting to get back to the negotiations table to handle the company’s future. While excluding, for now, any possibility of a strike.

“The trauma of September’s social movement is still very fresh. We won’t retort to a lack of politeness with an atomic bomb,” reassures Erick Derivry.