Traffic disrupted at Roissy airport, one in five flights canceled on Saturday – 07/01/2022 at 18:36


* 10% of flights canceled at CDG on Friday, according to ADP

* A new strike on July 13?

* Long queues at Roissy

(Updated with Saturday flight cancellations)

PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) – A strike in the French airport sector led to the cancellation of 10% of flights at Paris-Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport on Friday and will continue on Saturday with the elimination of a flight out of five, at the request of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC).

The employees who demonstrated Friday in Roissy voted for a new strike on July 13, during a show of hands.

The strike movement, which relates to wage demands, concerned employees of airline subcontractors and employees of large groups such as ADP (formerly Aéroports de Paris) ADP.PA and Air France AIRF.PA, in airports from Paris, Marseille or Nantes.

They are demanding a net increase of 300 euros in their monthly salary to cope with galloping inflation as well as better working conditions, while air traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels.

Long queues formed on Friday morning at baggage check-in at CDG, the largest airport in France. Some passengers had been waiting for hours.

“It’s not going very well,” testified Philippine Tournier, who was to leave for Cancun, Mexico.

“We’ve been here since 3 a.m. and we’ve been waiting,” added the young girl who, seeing her flight from Nantes to Paris canceled this morning, had taken a bus to go to the capital.

The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) had asked airlines operating at CDG on Thursday to cancel one in six flights between 07:00 and 14:00, for security reasons. She asks them to cancel one in five on Saturday in the same time slot.

According to ADP management, 100 flights were canceled on Friday out of the 1,300 planned, or around 10% for the day.

20,000 POSTS CUT AT ROISSY

Social movements are multiplying across Europe in this sector to demand wage increases in the face of the explosion in the cost of living, leading to major disruptions in airports such as London and Amsterdam.

These tensions are exacerbated by the difficulties encountered by aviation companies in recruiting, after having massively laid off during the health crisis. Some 20,000 jobs were cut during the COVID-19 pandemic at Paris-Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, according to the CGT.

“There is really a lack of people. We are called every day, even on our days off to find out if we want to work. It is no longer just mental fatigue but physical fatigue,” Nadia Gabuch, an agent, told Reuters. stopover of 45 years with 20 years of seniority.

Added to this are financial difficulties for many employees. Sebastien Estennevin, security guard, travels nearly 80 km a day to get to Roissy. Its gasoline budget has exploded. With a salary of around 1,700 euros net per month, he pays attention to the slightest expense.

The agent also denounces the increased pressure from his hierarchy, which asks him to go ever faster to carry out passenger checks, to be more versatile, for a job that requires him to go to the airport for a weekend. -end on two and to perform night shifts.

4% INCREASES PROPOSED AT ADP

Loris Foreman, station agent, is worried, for his part, about the proliferation of 28-hour contracts in his company which, according to him, do not allow him to offer decent remuneration to employees. nL8N2YG33O

“There is real suffering at Roissy airport,” said Nicolas Pereira, secretary general of the local Union CGT Roissy. “The claim for 300 euros is an emergency, it is not a whim.”

The wage negotiations held at the start of the year in the companies on the Roissy platform made it possible to obtain average increases ranging from 1.5 to 2%, with a peak of 3.25% for security.

“A derisory level”, judge Nicolas Pereira.

The ADP group, one of the main principals operating at Paris-Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, this week proposed to the company’s unions to increase its employees by 4% in return for the lifting of strike notices, according to the CGT.

“It’s not up to inflation today, but the progress is significant. If the employees believe that this proposal is sufficient, we can get out of the conflict situation,” Daniel Bertone told Reuters. CGT negotiator.

“If ADP offers 4%, it would be difficult for others to offer less,” he says.

(Report Caroline Palliez, Lucien Libert, Noémie Olive and Benoit Van Overstraeten, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Sophie Louet)



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