French air traffic controllers strike against work restructuring
By
Anthony Torres
10 March 2017
Dozens of flights have been disrupted at airports across southern and western France this week, as air traffic controllers and Air France trade unions called strikes, amid rising opposition among workers to contracts signed by the trade unions.
Air traffic controllers are protesting new work time rules agreed in June 2016 by the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers (SNCTA) and the National Union of Autonomous Unions (UNSA). UNSA, which represents roughly 20 percent of France’s 4,000 air traffic controllers, called a strike for March 6-10 for Brest and Bordeaux, and March 7-9 for Aix-en-Provence.
The unions criticized the “dogmatism” of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), who wants to go from a system of six days worked every 12 days to seven every 12 days. The DGAC is arguing that since the Reims and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports have already adopted the more taxing work schedule, the workers in Brest, Bordeaux and Aix should do so as well.
The sharpest warnings must be made about the role of the union bureaucracies. The SNTCA and UNSA are calling out the air traffic controllers against contracts that they themselves have signed. As in many other strikes in the air industry in France and across Europe, they will seek to demoralize the workers and force them back to work so that the contracts can go into effect despite workers’ opposition. The air traffic controllers’ struggle must be taken out of the hands of the trade unions.
With many workers not honoring the unions’ strike call, the DGAC recommended that airlines cancel only a quarter to a third of flights over southern and western France.
Air France announced that it would continue with…