The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and its European arm, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) express their firm solidarity with French trade unions as they prepare to take industrial action at the Aéroports de Paris (Charles de Gaulle-Roissy and Orly airports) between 1 July and 5 July.
The ITF and ETF also fully support the demonstrations planned by French unions at Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports before the 5-day strike.
The dispute is over mass dismissals and a long-term and unilateral plan by Aéroports de Paris to bring in new work contracts for employees at the airports, which unions say will lower pay, job losses and a reduction in rights and bonuses for employees.
The strike is being jointly called by the CGT, CFE-CGE, Unsa, CFDT and FO unions, who said in a joint press release that the proposals will “definitively remove more than a month’s salary from all employees and force them to accept geographical mobility that will generate additional commuting time.”
Nowadays, aviation industry leaders in France are making statements pointing out that the desire to travel is unbroken and supported by the vaccination campaign and extensive testing there will soon be a significant increase in passenger numbers again in the summer. Moreover, air cargo volumes have witnessed massive increases, even surpassing pre-pandemic times.
However, Aéroports de Paris is taking the axe to reasonably paid, permanent jobs. The company’s purely opportunistic aim is to replace long-time workers with young, cheaper and temporary workers who will be subjected to ever more brutal workloads. Meanwhile, for those laid off, both the severance pay and the prospects of finding new, comparable jobs in the labour market are getting worse and worse. This is unacceptable.
The Covid-19 pandemic has made clear the importance of the civil aviation industry, to save people's lives, to guarantee their safety and that of our communities, to give relief to the paralysed economy.
We demand that Aéroports de Paris drops its brutal and unilateral plan immediately and commit to beginning negotiations with all the unions representing its workforce toward a fair settlement in good faith.
We will be monitoring the situation closely and we will mobilise our aviation affiliates into solidarity with their colleagues in France.
