AFP, published on Thursday, July 07, 2022 at 6:59 p.m.
Clearer skies for the big departures this weekend: the firefighters at Paris airports ended their strike on Thursday and an “honorable way out of the crisis” might take shape for other employees who were also demanding pay rises.
The firefighters’ strike notice, which ran from Friday to Sunday, “was lifted following the signing of an agreement” between the management and the CGT, Groupe ADP, manager of the installations of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget. This agreement was confirmed by the trade union organization.
On the other hand, negotiations are continuing with the representatives of other personnel who have filed a separate notice for the same period.
Groupe ADP, whose State controls the majority of the capital, did not wish to give further details on the agreement with the firefighters.
They demanded upgrades, including an evolution of the salary scale, as well as “a real recruitment plan (…) allowing work to be organized in accordance with operational needs”.
This movement, which began on June 30, resulted last week in the cancellation of hundreds of flights departing from or arriving at Roissy, France’s leading airport. The other major Ile-de-France platform, Orly, was not affected.
The General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) had imposed these preventive cancellations, representing up to 20% of flights between 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., in the name of safety: the reduction in the number of available firefighters had made it necessary to close part Roissy slopes.
This measure will therefore not be necessary this weekend, which marks the start of the summer school holidays, a spokeswoman for the DGAC confirmed to AFP on Thursday.
The prospect of seeing the big starts disrupted seemed to recede Thursday night. According to the company, “negotiations are continuing (…) in a constructive climate and will continue tomorrow” Friday.
– “Progress” for the CGT –
Unions have also expressed their optimism, while an offer from management must be submitted to a general meeting of staff on Friday morning.
It is a “rather interesting proposal that reverses the pay cuts made by employees in 2021 and provides an increase corresponding to the level of what has been seen in other transport companies”, said to AFP the union representative of the CGT at ADP, Daniel Bertone.
Without prejudging the decision of the employees on Friday, “the CGT finds that there has been progress” and that the resolution of the conflict is “on the right track”, he added. His counterpart at CFE CGC Rachid Eddaidj spoke of the prospect of an “honorable way out of the crisis”.
The unions demanded a “general salary increase of 6%”, retroactive to January 1, in addition to additional increases for certain categories of staff as well as an increase in transport allowances and an “improvement in working conditions”.
The unions argue that the increases requested would offset inflation which is approaching 6% over one year, while ADP employees had agreed to reduce their salaries to allow the company to weather the Covid-19 crisis. which has divided by three the number of customers of Paris airports in 2020.
The group also conducted a voluntary redundancy plan and had undertaken to ensure that salaries returned to their pre-crisis level as soon as the effects of the latter on traffic had dissipated.
However, some routes have already exceeded their 2019 activity levels, in particular overseas connections or those, seasonal, to southern Europe.
On Wednesday, the new Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune, announced that he had received the CEO of ADP Augustin de Romanet and assured on Twitter that “the government is mobilized to avoid disruptions, encourage social dialogue and strengthen health precautions, in everyone’s interest”.
