Carriers are bracing themselves for an upsurge in labour unrest, with hefty rifts again beginning to appear in relations between airlines and unions.
Strikes have already taken place in France while other disputes are on-going in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Professor Peter Turnbull of the UK's Cardiff University notes that while the events of 11 September did pull management and labour together on a common course to resurrect airline fortunes, it was a temporary truce. Now, some labour groups are once again taking up their cases for improved deals or to win back concessions that had been granted during the mid-1990s downturn.
In early September, pilots from the SNPL union, which represents the majority of Air France pilots, staged a four-day strike over demands for a 10% wage rise. The action caused consternation at Air France, with chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta describing the claim as "absolute nonsense".
The two groups had agreed a 7.3% rise in April. These talks were postponed from their original scheduled date of mid-September 2001. The renewed SNPL claim, coming just a few months after the April award, took management by surprise, and it is in no mood to offer more, says an airline spokeswoman.
Air France is facing further industrial action from its ground staff, who are protesting about the government's plans to reduce its stake in the carrier from 54% down to 20-25%. The threat comes despite the airline saying that it would make no lay-offs for two years following this next stage of privatisation.
At KLM, talks on a new general labour agreement have been put off as the airline and its main engineers union try to solve their own dispute. This dates back to the union's pay claim, and KLM's attempts to seek compensation from individual engineering staff for the disruption it faced during a wildcat strike in July.
In Switzerland, Swiss has agreed a new labour deal with its cabin crew union Kapers, but withdrawn a 16% offer to a pilot union that had refused to submit the offer to a ballot.
Although the actions are unrelated, Turnbull believes there is a common thread: as employees see traffic return they equate this with a return to health of the carrier. "There is a mismatch in terms of the financial position of carriers and employee expectations," he says.
Shane Enright, secretary of the civil aviation section of the International Transport Federation, which represents employees at 70% of IATA members, foresees there being "if anything an intensification in industrial conflict" over coming months.
Unions recognise that all parties have to make sacrifices, but believe management relies too much on labour measures as a principal cost control mechanism, he says. "Labour is not a passive shock absorber there to take the weight and strain when there is a bump in the road," he adds. At the root of much tension is the suspicion from employees that they are "discardable", he adds
Source: Airline Business
