The tone is rising between the management of the company and the unions representing cabin crew (PNC). The renegotiation of the collective agreement for hostesses and stewards, which expires on October 31, has set fire to the powder. For more than a year, Air France has been pushing for a new composition of crews and to reduce the number of hostesses and stewards on long-haul flights.
In practice, the company wants one cabin crew member for 51 passengers (compared to 48 today). Employees protest against this project. At 72%, they have already rejected, during a vote organized in mid-November 2021 by the unions, the idea of a reduction in the number of hostesses and stewards on Air France’s long-haul flights.
For Sébastien Portal, Secretary General of the Air France Group Flight Crew Union (SNGAF), the first organization for cabin crew, the new composition of crews desired by management will weigh “on flight safety and employment”.
The union took out its calculator. According to him, with such a crew composition, 800 to 1,200 hostesses and stewards will be overstaffed from 1er november. And whose positions are therefore threatened, warns Mr. Portal, while stressing that this would then risk weighing on the ” pension fund “, which is funded solely by contributions from cabin crew and Air France pilots.
12,600 hostesses and stewards
During the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, 1,400 PNC positions have already been eliminated during a collective contractual break. Air France now has 12,600 hostesses and stewards.
For the SNGAF, the management would be ready to go into force. In an email sent to the cabin crew members on November 7, 2021, which we were able to consult, Anne Rigail, general manager of the company, was threatening.
She warned that “Management may, in October 2022, take unilateral measures to replace the agreement which will expire”. According to Mr. Portal, “the management would consider the new composition of the crews as essential to ensure the sustainability of the company, in particular to fillr the lack of competitiveness compared to Lufthansa and British Airways”. The objective of Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, being to restore the group’s operating margin.
“Committed to social dialogue, the company wishes to reach a balanced agreement, in the interest of cabin crew members and the company, whose financial situation remains fragile after two years of an unprecedented crisis”, says Air France.
You have 14.28% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.