airports
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in transport and distribution around the world.
France: Paris air traffic controllers strike
Staff held a one-day strike on Saturday in protest at plans to force workers to change sites and the planned rationalisation of the network.
Members of the CFDT and CGT unions were involved.
At Orly airport 50% of flights were cancelled with many more suffering significant delays, at Charles De Gaulle airport where the two unions are in the minority some 20% of flights were cancelled with others delayed.
France: Airport catering workers demonstrate
LSG-Gate-Gourmet workers threatened with dismissal as the management attempt to wind the company up demonstrated on Wednesday 4 April.
Many of the 853 workers facing the sack protested outside the company offices before moving to Roissy airport where they protested at the Lufthansa check-in desks, Lufthansa is the former owner of LSG.
Belgium: wildcat strike at Brussels airport
All flights to and from Brussels airport were cancelled from 6am on Friday after firefighters and security personnel began wildcat action due to a dispute over overtime.
The pickets were set up at 6am and the strike lasted for a total of 11 hours, Brussels airport is not releasing details on the number of flights and passengers delayed but the numbers will be high and there will be a knock-on effect over the busy easter weekend.
1995: The French pensions strikes
A short history of the massive strike movement against welfare reform in France in 1995.
During November and December of 1995 France was gripped by the largest strike movement the country had seen in recent years. After three weeks of strikes workers forced a government climbdown over the issue of changes to pensions of public sector workers.
Senegal: Strike at national airline
Air Senegal International was completely shut down for 48 hours this week as staff took strike action over low pay.
Staff, backed by the unions claim that the company is too influenced by Royal Air Maroc (the majority shareholder with 51%, with 49% held by Senegal) and that their salaries are much lower than those of workers at equivalent airlines.
Trinidad: air traffic controllers on "sick out"
Air traffic controllers in Trinidad called in sick en-masse over the weekend due to the slow pace of negotiations for their first collective contract.
The mass sickie was called on Saturday, with very little information available.
The Airport Authority first said that things were running as normal, but later admitted to "high absenteeism" stating that this was not the first time it had happened.
Airbus wildcat strike wave reaches UK
The unofficial walkouts at Airbus which swept Europe following the announcement of job cuts hit Wales on Friday.
Hundreds of staff at the Airbus UK factory in north Wales (pictured) downed tools on Friday 23 March, while their union Amicus attempted to get strikers back to work.
The BBC reported:
It is thought many of the 7,000 workers in Broughton, Flintshire, which makes wings for Airbus' flagship A380 passenger jet, are involved.
Denmark: Cabin crews wildcat strike grounds flights
More news on airline SAS in Denmark, which was forced to cancel 90 flights after cabin crews walked out in a dispute over pay.
In a follow up to our story yesterday, Chron.com reported that hundreds of Scandinavian Airlines cabin crew briefly went on a wildcat strike in Copenhagen on Wednesday 21 March, forcing the carrier to cancel around 90 flights and leaving thousands of passengers stranded, company officials said.
Denmark: SAS cabin crew wildcat
Crews at the Swedish carrier SAS AB walked out in a wildcat yesterday morning after pay and pensions talks broke down.
The walkout caused the cancellation of 92 flights and bosses threatened the 1,600 strong CAU union with fines for its members if they did not return to work. After the intervention of a union official the staff returned to work in the afternoon, apparently after an arbitrator called bosses and the union back to the negotiating table.
Update 23 March 2007
Airbus workers to strike across Europe against job cuts
Tens of thousands of workers at Airbus are expected to walk off the job Friday (today) in a highly unusual show of Europe-wide union power against plans by the struggling aircraft manufacturer to slash 10,000 posts.
Trade unions predict tens of thousands of staff at all Airbus sites in Europe will down tools and hold protest meetings to increase pressure against the company's "Power8" restructuring scheme. Such co-ordinated Europe-wide protests organised by trade unions are highly unusual.
