Striking employees of Paris Charles de Gaulle airport gathered in front of the airport, in Roissy on July 1, 2022 (AFP / BERTRAND GUAY)
Dozens of flights were canceled on Saturday morning at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, affected by a social conflict over wages and working conditions which could also affect the start of the long holidays in a week, after a few days off from Sunday.
The firefighters of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG), the first French airport generally called Roissy, had been on strike since Thursday, forcing the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) to request preventive flight cancellations : part of the slopes had to be closed for safety reasons.
These cancellations affected one in five flights between 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Saturday departing from or arriving at Roissy, compared to one flight in six on Thursday and Friday. That is 150 flights deleted out of 1,300, according to a spokesperson for Groupe ADP.
The situation on site on Saturday morning was “in line with what was announced”, and the management considers itself “satisfied with the way this first day of vacation went”, the spokesperson told AFP. .
The flights having been canceled in advance and the passengers warned, the manager of the Paris airports did not find any major problems.
Access to the airport was not impeded, as on Friday, by a union procession, he noted. However, travelers had to reckon with the closure of the RER for work.
The other major airport in the Paris region, Orly, was not affected by the movement which associates other employees of ADP and subcontractors in an inter-union and inter-professional movement for wages and working conditions.
Salary negotiations did not succeed on Friday. “The table (of negotiations) is always open”, underlined the spokesperson of ADP, a group controlled in majority by the State.
Planes on the tarmac seen from terminal 2E at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport, May 12, 2020 (AFP/Archives/ERIC PIERMONT)
The firefighters have lifted their notice for the rest of the weekend, so that the DGAC and ADP are now planning a Sunday without disruption.
On the other hand, they gave a new strike notice from Friday morning July 8 at 5 a.m. to Sunday evening July 10 at midnight, for the weekend of the start of the school holidays.
– Difficult summer –
“We are asking for the opening of new negotiations since the management of ADP has broken off the dialogue,” Daniel Bertone, secretary general of the CGT of Groupe ADP, told AFP.
Employees are demanding a 6% revaluation with retroactive effect from January 1 to compensate for inflation. Management proposed 4% on July 1, he explained, noting that this increase did not catch up with the approximately 5% drop accepted by employees in the cost reduction plan decided by ADP in the face of the Covid crisis. -19.
Management has not confirmed the figures mentioned by the CGT.
It also denies information provided by the unions, according to which 20,000 pieces of luggage were lost on Friday.
A breakdown of the sorting system left fifteen flights without passenger luggage on Friday morning, and companies then had problems, acknowledged the spokesman.
“But all the luggage will find its owners”, traceability being ensured, he said.
At the call of an inter-union FO-CGT-CFE-CGC, a strike notice was also filed from Friday to Monday in Marseille-Provence, but without major disruption according to management, personnel having been requisitioned by prefectural decree.
Gathering of strikers in front of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, July 1, 2022 (AFP / BERTRAND GUAY)
The government will “continue to exchange with the unions to find a way out of the crisis”, assured Olivia Grégoire, spokesperson for the government, on Friday. “The idea that our compatriots cannot go on vacation is not viable,” she added.
The day before, associations of tour operators had estimated that the disruptions at airports in recent weeks made “fear the worst for the holidays and travel of French men and women”.
Eurocontrol, the body for monitoring air traffic on the Old Continent, estimates that it could return in August to up to 95% of its 2019 level, before the health crisis which divided attendance by three in 2020.
However, the summer promises to be very difficult for the sector, which is struggling to regain its operational efficiency after the pandemic and is experiencing many social movements, within companies and airport facilities.
© 2022 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
