AIR FRANCE-EMPLOYMENT/CEO-PROTEST Air France CEO confirms 1,000 job cuts in 2016 while workers protest in streets

Record ID: 134574

  • Title: AIR FRANCE-EMPLOYMENT/CEO-PROTEST Air France CEO confirms 1,000 job cuts in 2016 while workers protest in streets
  • Date: 22nd October 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (OCTOBER 22, 2015) (REUTERS) UNION MEMBERS AND AIR FRANCE EMPLOYEES AT PROTEST PROTESTERS WITH FLARES, FLAGS AND MINIATURE AIRPLANES EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WHERE AIR FRANCE MANAGEMENT WAS MEETING AIR FRANCE CEO FREDERIC GAGEY SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (French) AIR FRANCE CEO, FREDERIC GAGEY, SAYING: "The only figure that has been confirmed this morning is i
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAB0VPP2IDXB5NUX34HLVTDGDZG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Air France confirmed it will cut 1,000 jobs in 2016, Chief Executive Frederic Gagey said on Thursday (October 22) as hundreds of Air France employees took to the streets of Paris in protest.
    The French unit of Air France-KLM will stick to the use of purely voluntary redundancies, currently estimated at 1,000 in 2016, if it can reach an accord with unions by January, he told reporters after a works council meeting.
    "The only figure that has been confirmed this morning is indeed to say, assuming that we continue with the negotiations and pursue the plan A, the only departures we consider for 2016 are voluntary resignations, as we have always done, for 1000 jobs. It has been discussed with the unions and this figure has been confirmed," Gagey said.
    After it failed to get the agreement of its pilots to a plan to increase working hours for the same pay earlier this year, Air France management announced a so-called 'plan B' to cut 2,900 job cuts and reduce its network, only to be met with violent protests by staff.
    Gagey said the operational performance of Air France has improved since the summer, but that the company still needs to press ahead with restructuring to reach its medium-term goals.
    "Yes I know, I have heard the word 'blackmail', 'ultimatum' against this, against that, it is more about let's look at (the situation) with serenity, through dialogue, the difficulties and the challenges that we are facing. They told me this is blackmail, no I see it more as discussion, through dialogue, about the situation of the company, about what it has achieved, because I keep saying that what happened between 2011-2015 it is something that is important for Air France," he added.
    The main pilots' union, the SNPL, said it was "exactly on the same line" as the management on the necessity to avoid "plan B", but that the government should also offer a more favourable competitive framework to the company.
    As Gagey spoke, protesters including union members and uniformed Air France employees gathered outside Paris' national assembly.
    Captain Bruno Benoist-Lucy, a pilot for Air France, said he was demonstrating against the "uneven playing field" created by the French government.
    "Listen, if I didn't believe or if I didn't have a sort of hope, I would have stayed home. In life, if you don't do anything, if you don't sound the alert, if you don't do what is your responsibility, then surely nothing will happen. The government needs to finally pass measures and decide what they want, if they want an airline that has weight in the world of global aviation or not," Benoist-Lucy told Reuters Television.
    Union member Pascal Vidocoq, who works in the public sector, said it was important for him to stand in solidarity with the Air France employees.
    "It's important to be here, I think, I'm from the French public sector. Today we can't keep allowing them to do what they want in France, and additionally, to call thugs union members who are just fighting for their jobs with the employees in their company. Today we're showing solidarity, we're here to defend our colleagues," he said.
    Air France has set a deadline of early January to conclude negotiations aimed at avoiding the full implementation of a plan that would see 14 aircraft withdrawn from its long-haul fleet as well as the job cuts, union sources said.
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