Air-France cuts +5000 jobs
 

'(Reuters) - French carrier Air France unveiled plans to cut more than 5,000 jobs by the end of next year as part of an effort to slash costs and debt to return to growth in the face of increased competition and soaring fuel bills.

The airline, under pressure from France's new Socialist government, pledged to try to avoid forced layoffs by encouraging early retirement, voluntary departures, part-time working and work-sharing.

But the carrier warned forced redundancies would be "unavoidable" if unions refused to support management's plans.'

I understand 450 pilot jobs will be lost

That would be about right, as a general rule, anytime an airline announces layoffs and redundancies about 10% will be flight deck.:sad:

@ Gonna
 

Where did you hear/read this? Can't find info on pilot redundancy...

Le Figaro - Socits : Air France va dtailler son plan de sortie de crise

Very roughly translated/paraphrased:

<<During the period 1712 jobs will go due to natural attrition, the other 3410 jobs will be lost across all categories in the workforce by a combination of early retirement, voluntary redundancy, part time working and also by job sharing for cabin crew and pilots.>>

I would imagine everyone in Air France believes it's not their fault, like everything that happened to them in the past :ugh:

@ DirectCF
 

Wow! If they ever give medals for generalizing, the gold is yours! 'Everyone in Air France', and 'everything that happened to them'? Really? Very subtle remark...

I heard even the AF Pilots are agreeing to increased productivity. Something must be up :\

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.

Can't believe that in Germany. Just not legal and obviously people won't let it slide.

The information was reported as it was received and for once, without embellishment.
German labour laws are indeed very heavily biased in favour of the employee. Perhaps contracts or conditions changed at the time of the Air France/KLM merger/take over?
Either way, the result is a lot of long service staff out of work and replaced with low cost power by the hour.

Cheap labour
 

Cavortingcheetah Quote:- "Britain is the only major European country that actively agitates in favour of admitting Turkey to the EU."

Yes, I believe that the present Government i.e. Cameron, does favour Turkey being admitted to the EU.

Whether that is supported by the majority of British people is doubtful - there is already some concern about the number of immigrants from eastern Europe.

But you may be assured that the British people will never be consulted on the matter.

Absolutely right about the no consultation policy. But it was Blair, back in 2004, who really started the campaign for Turkish entry.

I guess you were being tongue (firmly) in cheek referring to the well trained ex air-farce pilots from Turkey. Ask the Syrians . . . . although the Turkish Govt did defend the pilot saying "these things are beyond control due to the speed of the aircraft", no doubt like a stall being beyond control of the crew in AMS due to the rad-alt failure. Isn't denial a wonderful tonic from dreary old reality.
Anyone who worked there has more than a few stories to tell vis a vis training & well trained :hmm:

Of course Turkish do advertise themselves as "the best airline in Europe", yep, but c- in Geography chaps, and thats before we start on "culture".

Air France has been run along the lines of the French public services, and is inefficient and cumbersome, with duplication of functions at all levels. French work practices are inefficient. Of course I have seen the 'studies' claiming the opposite which someone will no doubt trot out to prove me wrong, but I have also worked in a number of countries including France and my comment is based on real observations and not 'studies'.

Of course I am sorry for those at all levels who will lose their jobs, including people I know personally, but they have known this was coming for a while. Socialist Francois Hollande's pretence of magnanimity (it's easy to be generous with other peoples' money) has to be funded somehow, and cutting jobs at AF will allow the money thus saved to go towards those generous pensions and early retirement benefits that he has promised. Smoke and mirrors.

As for Turkey and the EU, a country which has 3% of its land area and about 16% of its population in geographical Europe hardly counts as European, nor are the Turks European people by ethnicity. I have nothing against the Turks at all, in fact they are fine people and in many ways I'd rather see them in the EU than some of the existing incumbents, but I don't think they deserve to be drawn into the failing disaster which the EU has become.