Qantas strike settled but now it's Air France

Posted 02/11/2011

The Qantas strike was settled, with its primary impact in North America the return of flights from Los Angeles, but the latest air travel issue was Air France’s cabin crew disruptions that  grounded their long-haul trips to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Montreal and Washington.

Qantas Airlines began flying again after a court ordered striking employees back to work.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce took the drastic step of grounding all flights last Saturday, disrupting 70,000 passengers and spurring the government and its labor-market regulator to seek a quick end to hostilities between the airline and unions. The move was made to force the government to intervene, according to Bloomberg.

The airline has been in a dispute with three trade unions since September. Union workers had been striking for weeks and Qantas was threatening to lock them out.

Air France’s 15,000 cabin crew disrupted flights in a protest at cuts to staffing levels, grounding about 12 percent of services, said Business Week.

But after support of the strike weakened by some labor factions, Air France should operate at least 90 percent of flights today, Bloomberg reported.

Some labor groups reached an agreement with Air France.

Today’s long-haul cancellations are confined to Paris flights to Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Montreal and New York John F. Kennedy, according to Bloomberg.

US services have been halted because passengers can usually be accommodated with partner Delta Air Lines Ltd.

The dispute hinges on plans to cut one flight attendant from each of its Airbus A319 planes.

By David Wilkening

Originally published 1 Nov 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/19bcaa03/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C1150A0A410Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm