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Nearly a third of the flights of the French branch of Transavia are canceled on Friday and Saturday, and a quarter on Sunday, due to a strike for wages, at the call of a union of hostesses and stewards, indicated the low cost airline.
« Transavia France plans to operate 70% of its capacity over the next two days and 75% on Sunday “said a spokesperson. Between 250 and 265 flights per day were initially planned throughout the weekend. The social movement, at the call of the minority union National Union of Commercial Flight Crew (SNPNC), started Thursday and is due to end Sunday evening. Its union representative, Lionel Trovao, discusses the reasons for this strike:
There are currently some hostesses and stewards who are paid below the minimum wage in France. […] There was a real impact with the strike. Our goal is to work. We love our company. We love our job. But we just want to have a decent salary in terms of the law and working conditions that are framed.
Lionel Trovao: “All we are asking is that employees be paid the minimum wage”
The exasperation of customers whose flight is canceled was palpable on social networks, evoking lost hotel reservations and ruined holidays, yet so expected after the two years of pandemic. Transavia France CEO Nathalie Stubler wrote a letter to the company’s customers apologizing. ” We know how much the cancellation of a flight disrupts plans and can jeopardize a particularly expected stay. “, she acknowledged. “ Currently we are not living up to our promise and we regret it “, lamented Ms. Stubler.
An insufficient agreement according to the SNPNC
The SNPNC rejects an agreement recently signed by the three other trade unions affiliated with cabin crew (PNC), including the CGT, the only representative union. This agreement provides for a 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 gone from 500 to 1,000 euros per year, and the transport bonus as well as the purchasing power bonus have been increased, which is equivalent to a “ increase of about 5% for low salaries “, according to the management.
A schedule of discussions was also drawn up and meetings scheduled to ensure a ” follow-up of so-called tiring rotations “, according to the company. The SNPNC is demanding a general and lasting 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).
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