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THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE faced flight cancellations in France today, the fifth day of a strike by Air France flight crew at the height of the holiday travel period, the airline said.
So far the strike has affected around 150,000 people, the airline said.
Some 900 flights, or about one in five, have been cancelled since the action began on Wednesday, the airline said, estimating the cost to the company at “tens of millions of euros”.
Some flights have gone ahead but with a reduced passenger load for security reasons as there were not enough flight attendants.
Millions of people are returning home from their July holidays this weekend as millions more set off for an August break, causing long tailbacks on the roads and frenetic scenes at rail stations and airports.
Unions representing around half of the Air France strikers called the stoppage after marathon talks failed to reach a breakthrough on renewing a collective labour accord on rules, pay and promotions that expires in October.
Management wants to limit the extension of the agreement to 17 months, while unions are asking for between three and five years.
Talks are at an impasse, union leader Christelle Auster said, threatening a new strike following the current action, which ends Tuesday.
Air France has also grappled with pilot strikes. The last one took place June 11-14, right at the start of Euro 2016 football championships. The airline estimated that stoppage cost it some €40 million.
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They do love a good strike in France don’t they..
There’s that many strikes when it comes to the French and aviation that it’d probably be more news worthy reporting when there wasn’t a strike on
Our media is not covering this ,for obvious reasons, but if this was a country outside Europe a general travel ban would be issued. It’s close to civil war there.
https://www.facebook.com/Killuminati4Wakeup/videos/1039966886038736/
Killuminati4Wakeup? i think i just found my new band name
What’s French for Wally.?
Honestly I’m pretty sure they’re on strike more often then they’re actually working !
How unusual. Sure this never happens in France!
Is there a €XXXm figure for what the French aviation unions cost the French economy in an average year?
Ah now!! The French stand up for themselves. Sure it’s inconvenient, but at least they’ve still got unions who care about workers. Our lot took the cash and ran. SIPTU are still not prepared to tell us where our taxpayers money went. They’re a corrupt shower of self serving gangsters. Viva Le France!!!!
Vive la France*
I hear they’re striking for parity in strike days with the French air traffic controllers…
Couldn’t give a toss..
Where’s the”sack the lot of them”brigade???
Marooned on some apron in shitty ‘conditions’ hopefully!
I avoid France like the plague for connecting flights etc
Yeah…get ready for the Frexit..only this time france will be kicked out of EU.
French airspace is very important for us, the UK and others. Very few have any interest in ours – even Europe/USA flights don’t use our airspace. In addition, our seaports have little transport relevance.
Ireland makes a fortune from transatlantic air travel every year.
How much?
About €17:43 every fortnight, give or take.
Apx 150m per annum.
And people here still banging on about the Luas drivers.
We don’t know how lucky we are.
French air traffic controllers want parity with luas drivers
Mad for the strikes so they are
There was a nice picture on the net where you could see people sunbathing on a lovely beach.
The headline of the picture was: “if you can put your arse on the sand of some nice beach nowadays, it’s because others moved theirs in the past.”
Every freakin summer with these clowns
have your say