KLM’s easing of pilot workload stokes Air France unions’ fire

Bloomberg

Dutch airline KLM agreed to reduce the workload for its pilots. Unions at sister carrier Air France want a deal too.
Labour representatives at Air France-KLM’s French unit have been asking for a pay rise since the beginning of the year, vowing to stage more strikes if new Chief Executive Officer Ben Smith doesn’t comply. Now that KLM pilots have had their demands satisfied, Air France employees say they should, too.
There’s no reason for managers to postpone negotiations until Smith takes the job, the CGT union said in a statement, citing the KLM agreement as evidence a deal can be reached. “We’re not letting anything go,” the union said, referring to possible walkouts.
The new CEO, who plans to take the helm before the end of September, is facing staunch opposition from nine unions at Air France. Workers are demanding a share of the airline’s 2017 profits through a 5 percent pay rise this year.
The Dutch pilots had threatened to strike before the KLM agreement was announced Tuesday. It will translate into a 9 percent pay increase for long-haul pilots and a 13 percent rise for medium haul, according to the main Air France pilot union SNPL.
The actual financial impact of the measures is “difficult to determine,” KLM CEO Pieter Elbers wrote in an internal communication seen by Bloomberg, where he denied the salary increase was nearing 13 percent.
Air France unions, including CGT and SNPL, have long said that KLM, which merged with Air France in 2004, was growing at the expense of the French airline, on the back of lower taxes in the Netherlands.
The Dutch business contributed 95 percent of profit in the second quarter, when the French unit was hit by strikes. The profit margin for KLM was 12 percent, compared to 0.3 percent at Air France.
The labor representatives had already warned of possible new strikes after the company revealed Smith’s annual pay of as much as 4.25 million euros ($5 million) — four times what his predecessor made.