This is a blow for those who were planning to go on vacation. The French branch of the low-cost company Transavia has canceled a quarter of the flights scheduled for Thursday due to a strike called by a union of hostesses and stewards demanding a general increase in wages. Some 250 flights were scheduled for the day, according to the company.
The social movement, at the call of the minority union SNPC, must continue until the end of the weekend. The company was unable to assess Thursday afternoon what its impact would be on flights scheduled for Friday. The union rejects an agreement recently signed by the three other union organizations affiliated with cabin crew (PNC).
A dispute over wages
This agreement provides for “improvement of working conditions on tiring rotations and exceptional measures of purchasing power”, said a spokesperson for the Air France-KLM subsidiary, which says it has around 1,400 cabin crew members. The customer satisfaction bonus has thus increased from 500 to 1,000 euros per year and the transport bonus and the purchasing power bonus have been increased, which is equivalent to an “increase of around 5% for low salaries”, according to management.
The SNPNC is demanding a general and permanent increase in wages now, which the company refuses to negotiate before the start of 2023 because it says it is constrained by state-guaranteed loans (PGE). “The Transavia France teams are doing everything they can to limit the consequences of this movement on the flight schedule,” assured the subsidiary.
“Thank you for ruining my whole family’s vacation”
But many customers whose flight was canceled let their exasperation show on social networks. “Thank you for ruining the holidays of my whole family,” tweeted one of them who was to fly to Algeria. “My flight to Tunis is canceled 15 hours before departure. We make the journey from afar and we find ourselves blocked now, ”testified another, without really knowing what to do.
Transavia must legally offer rerouting to injured passengers as well as pay the costs incurred by the cancellation of the flight, such as hotel or restaurants. These same passengers can also request compensation from the company (even in the event of reimbursement of the flight). This can reach up to 600 per passenger is, at least, 250 euros.