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STRIKES

French air traffic control strike will have ‘huge impact’, travellers warned

With unions expecting large-scale strike participation, 60 percent of flights in and out of France are set to be cancelled as air traffic controllers call a strike to protest against proposed changes to their navigation system.

Published: 22 April 2024 11:53 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2024 21:45 CEST
French air traffic control strike will have 'huge impact', travellers warned
An air traffic control tower at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, in the northeastern outskirts of Paris, amid a strike of air traffic controllers in 2022. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

LATEST: On Wednesday morning, the main union announced that the strike would be called off after reaching an agreement nevertheless French authorities say scores of flights will still have to be cancelled. You can get the latest news HERE.

Unions have called a one-day strike on Thursday, April 25th, but have indicated that they will also file strike notices for May 9th, 10th and 11th – a holiday weekend in France.

The strike is going to be “very strongly followed”, said Pascal de Izaguirre, the head of FNAM, an umbrella group of French aviation industry unions.

“It will have a huge impact,” he said.

The French civil aviation authority said on Tuesday night that 60 percent of flights would be cancelled;

READ ALSO Which airports will be worst affected by the strike?

The SNCTA, the union that represents over 60 percent of air traffic controllers in France, told the French press on Monday that they expected “record turnout”.

“As a result, people should expect major disruption and long delays,” a representative from the SNCTA union told AFP.

Another union, UNSA-UTCAC, had also filed a strike notice for Thursday.

You can keep up with updates at The Local’s strikes section. 

The strike is a 24-hour one but there may be knock-on disruption on Friday – anyone with a flight booked on Thursday should check with their airline before going to the airport.

Disruptions can also affect flights flying over French airspace. 

READ MORE: Your rights on delayed or cancelled flights in France

Why the industrial action?

Unions are protesting against an ‘insulting’ overhaul of air navigation services, a topic that has been under discussion for the past 15 months. Air traffic authorities are seeking to reorganise the work of air traffic controllers to better deal with expected increases in traffic.

However, unions believe that this must also coincide with pay and hiring increases.

A representative for SNTCA told French media that the proposed accompanying measures have been insufficient. They are seeking salary increases of 5.04 percent per year in 2025, 2026 and 2027, as well as the doubling of their ‘special qualification allowance’.

The industrial action comes as a surprise, as the SCNTA had previously agreed to an ‘Olympic truce’.

The agreement was that the union would not call strikes until after conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in exchange for increased pay and a new round of salary discussions after the Games.

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STRIKES

Paris garbage collectors strike as city readies for Olympics

Paris garbage collectors went on strike on Tuesday, two-and-a-half months before the French capital is due to host the Summer Olympic Games.

Published: 15 May 2024 09:44 CEST
Paris garbage collectors strike as city readies for Olympics

Paris rubbish collectors had warned of possible strikes over the summer, raising the spectre of piles of trash roasting in summer heat on the streets as hordes of athletes and tourists descend on the City of Light.

ANALYSIS: How likely is strike chaos during the Paris Olympics?

Unions and City Hall differed on how many of the collectors had walked off the job on Tuesday.

Paris city hall said that 16 percent of staff, or one in six, were striking.

“Collection services were little affected today,” a City Hall official told AFP, without providing further details.

But the CGT union branch that represents garbage collectors, hailed a “strong” mobilisation effort, saying that 70-90 percent of staff, depending on the arrondissement, had walked off the job.

CGT said that some 400 striking workers had “occupied” the building housing city hall’s human resources department on Tuesday morning.

City Hall put the number at 100 and said they had left by 12 noon.

CGT had warned that walkouts would occur on several days in May and then continue from July 1st to September 8th.

Summer Olympics will run in Paris from July 26th until August 11th, and the Paralympic Games from August 28th to September 8th.

Refuse workers in the Paris region are demanding an extra €400 per month and a one-off €1,900 bonus for those working during the Olympics, when French workers traditionally take time off for the summer holidays.

The mayor’s office had previously told AFP that it would extend bonuses of between €600 and €1,900 that it had already announced for workers contributing to the Olympics effort to refuse collectors.

The mayor of Paris’s 17th arrondissement, Geoffroy Boulard, said the strike was “irresponsible”.

“To take hostage not only Parisians but also tourists and visitors is also an attack on France’s world image,” he said.

In March last year, a three-week strike by rubbish collectors against unpopular pensions reform saw more than 10,000 tonnes of waste piled in Paris streets at its height.

Images of the heaps of trash, some mounting several metres high, were seen around the world.

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