I was passing through KLM check in at Munich ten days ago and got talking with the young guy at the desk. This is what I understood him to tell me.
That all KLM ground staff or groundside staff at Munich had been made redundant.
That the notice of redundancy had been swift and unexpected.
That even those with twenty or thirty years of service were being made redundant with no severance packages or pensions.
That no one on the ground staff made more that €24/30k pa.
That they were being replaced by Turkish workers who were being paid by the hour at something around the €6/hr mark.
That this was a damned shame especially for the older staff who had been completely shafted by Air France/KLM.
That there was nothing voluntary about what was, in effect, the replacing of long term salaried staff with cheap immigrant labour, power by the hour.
I wished him good luck and went upon my merry way.
The differences in service to me, the passenger in this case, are as nothing compared with the differences in lifestyle that some of these staff members will now be experiencing. One cannot blame Air France for availing themselves of cheap labour but there are ways to do things decently and those paths were not taken here by all accounts.
Britain is the only major European country that actively agitates in favour of admitting Turkey to the EU. It certainly is a potential source of very inexpensive labour. Probably has lots of well trained ex air force pilots too who'd love to relocate-in spite of the cold and damp.
Last edited by cavortingcheetah; 22nd Jun 2012 at 18:05.