Violence flares up at Air France management meeting

Following the news released on Friday that Air France intend to take substantial measures to help reduce expenditure, violence erupted at today’s management meeting when it was stormed by protesters. Xavier Broseta, Head of Human Resources, had the shirt ripped from his back as he made his way out, being forced to climb a fence to escape wearing only a pair of trousers and a tie. Frédéric Gagey, the Air France Chief Executive escaped the incident unscathed, though Pierre Plissonnier, the director of the Air France hub at Orly airport, had both his shirt and jacket torn. Manuel Valls, the French Prime Minister said he was “outraged by the unacceptable violence by demonstrators at the fringes of Air France works council.” The current situation is the culmination of failed and protracted negotiations between the Air France and the pilots’ main union, SNLP, regarding ‘Plan A’ which included increasing pilots’ hours. Last year negotiations reached the point where pilots went on strike for two weeks, costing the airline in excess of €500 million, over proposals to have bases for the proposed low cost wing of Air France-KLM, Transavia, located outside France. As a result, Air France posted a net loss of €198 million for the 2014 financial year. With failure to reach agreement over ‘Plan A’, the airline made it clear that they had no option but to introduce a much more radical ‘Plan B’. Despite having already cut the workforce by some 9,000 members of staff, a further 2,900 would now be laid off, including 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff, as part of the Performance 2020 program which will see the airline aim to cut costs by €1.8 billion over 2 years.
The unions stated that their members were being asked to pay the price for a flawed management strategy, wanting to now see a growth plan before any pay cuts or job losses would be discussed. “We want an aggressive plan to capture growth, not something that is simply following the other airlines in Europe. At the moment, it is only about firing people,” said a spokesperson for the SNPL union. In 2014 Air France issued three profit warnings while trying to maintain one of the highest cost bases of all European airlines. It is now under pricing pressure on a number of long-haul routes in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
For the French government, these negotiations with the unions have become a major political issue, with Michel Sapin, Farnce’s Finance Minister, urging pilots to try to reach agreement with management. Sapin is a strong supporter of “necessary reforms” and is quoted as saying “I hope everyone is well aware, including everyone in the Air France staff, that if nothing is done, Air France is in very big trouble.” Only last week, the president of the Socialist Group in the National Assembly, Bruno Le Roux, made it abundantly clear he was “very concerned” for Air France and the risk of the “disappearance of the French flag carrier”. Air France confirmed it would be would filing a complaint for “aggravated assault” against “isolated individuals” behind the attack, while FNAM, the main airline industry union, have openly condemned the attack.  (At the time of publication €1.00 = US$1.12)