Mark Pilling LONDON
A summer of labour action and discontent could be looming as several European pilots' unions follow the US lead and push to claw back pay concessions made during the 1990s.
The unions are seeking significant salary increases to make up for pay cuts and concessions, which many made in the mid-1990s to help ailing flag carriers, and to share in some of the recent airline profits. The bullish mood of the pilots, also reflected in other staff sectors, contrasts with a management desire to restrain cost increases as the economic downturn begins to bite.
In Germany the issue has spilled over into industrial action. An acrimonious war of words between Lufthansa management and the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots' union has already caused the pilots to stage a lightning strike in late March. In early April the VC rejected Lufthansa's pay offer and is conducting a strike ballot of all its 4,200 members. The result of this will be known in early May and, if over 75% of pilots vote to go ahead, the airline could face severe disruption as the summer schedules draw near.
Raul Romero, a spokesman for the Spanish pilots' union SEPLA, confirms that, in common with the Lufthansa pilots, Iberia pilots are asking for pay increases to recover cuts made during the 1990s. "Since 1994 we have had deductions in our salaries made to confront the crisis of the airline (at that time)," he explains.
SEPLA and Iberia are discussing a new collective labour agreement (CLA) to replace the current deal which expires at the end of the year. The unions have already used work-to-rule tactics to further their cause. A union attempt to seal a deal prior to Iberia's recent Initial Public Offering did not work as Iberia parent SEPI threatened to cancel the IPO if the action continued.
French pilots' union SNPL is preparing its strategy for impending discussions with Air France on a new CLA to replace a three-year deal that expires in October, said Patrick Auguin, SNPL Air France spokesman. During the tenure of Christian Blanc as Air France president in the 1990s, the pilots accepted 30% productivity increases with no corresponding salary changes, and have had no recovery of these measures since then, he explains. SNPL is embarking on a benchmarking exercise to see how its members are paid compared to other major global carriers, including SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines, before stating how it believes its CLA should "evolve", said Auguin.
One result of alliances is an increasing trend for unions to compare staff pay and conditions on a more global basis, said Stan Clayton-Smith, director of professional affairs at IFALPA, the international federation of pilots' unions. He acknowledges that this is hard to achieve accurately because some unions and airlines are reluctant to release comprehensive data, and that it is difficult to make comparisons when conditions and living standards vary so much from one carrier to another, and from one country to another.
However, the study the VC is using as its baseline in the talks with Lufthansa, which was performed in co-operation with the airline, shows that German pilots have fallen behind most others in Europe in terms of gross pay. For example, British Airways pilots are paid 27% more, while those at Star Alliance partner United Airlines get 65% more.
Current union demands come at a time of a global pilot shortage, although unions are reluctant to bring this issue into their labour discussions, said Auguin. That said, a shortage of pilots does, to an extent, strengthen their bargaining position.
Source: Airline Business
