To start of, the VNV is not the KLM pilots union, but the union representing all pilots in KLM, Martinair, Transavia, Arkefly etc. (and some other helicopter companies).
It has one board (dutch name bestuur) and for the main part 3 ledenraden (groups of representatives of the company divided into subblocks of the seniority list).
The board does all negotiations with all the companies, bit the individual ledenraden have the right to ammend, or vote out any deals made by the bestuur. So no one company pilot group can overrule the others (well there technically is a possibility, but that is very complex). On the outside it looks very strange, but it has served us very well in the last 80 years or so.
The deal which was made, was very complex and the result of over 1,5 years of negotiating between the VNV and Martinair/KLM. One of the main point which the union tried to hammer in to all parties concerned (KLM and Martinair pilot sides) was that the best deal was one where both parties gave about the same amount. There idea was to never have one pilot group have massive advantage over the other.
So what are the highlights of the deal:
- Martinair stops being a pax operator and focusses only on cargo
- Martinair can not recruite any more pilots
- KLM loses all full cargo aircraft to martinair
- All martinair pilots will become part of the KLM pilot pension fund (2d best pension fund in the Netherlands)
- 67 FTE martinair pilots need to switch to KLM at the bottom of the seniority list (can been voluntary or compulsory of not enough volunteers) and in start functions (SO longhaul or FO KLM Cityhopper)
- 67 FTE martinair pilots going to KLM retain their salary including payrises as if they were still with MAC untill their virtual KLM salary catches up and then that is their new salary.
There are a lot more points but these were the ones of the top of my head. The most important in my opinion is that nobody loses their job or loses salary (so we all can pay the mortgage, wives, mistresses etc etc).
There is a small group of people within MAC who will lose a lot of career prospect having to go to KLM at the bottom. But it is a very small group and again they lose no salary and get a better pension (quite important in these uncertain times).
The fact is, that the MAC pilot group was very wary of the secret nature that the negotiations were done and hired at their own expense external legal advice (est. cost 60.000 euro's). This did not sit very well with the KLM pilots and did raise tensions for a bit (which was more due to misunderstandings than anything else). The legal advice told the MAC pilots to sign on the dotted line as soon as possible as they would never ever get a better deal than this.
The problem with all these major deal including some of the most sacred parts of our profession, seniority and career prospect is that there can not only be winners, the best deals are when there are the least losers...
I for one was present at the KLM ledenraad meeting which voted for the deal (actually that was the codename "de deal"), all 10,5 hours of it. I really hope the guys coming over from MAC to KLM have a great time within our great company.