After an initial four-day strike, the National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL) filed a unlimited strike notice at airlines Air Antilles And Air Guyana “during this summer vacation period”.
Having already called for a strike from July 14 to 19, 2023, the CAIRE section of the SNPL representing the pilots of Air Antilles and Air Guyane obviously got nothing. According to her, 95% of pilots in Guyana and more than 60% in the West Indies have stopped working, but despite the cancellation of all flights in Guyana and “half of the fleet on the ground in the West Indies”, CEO Éric Koury ” is still conspicuously absent from social dialogue. No invitation to sit around the table, or to negotiate! “. The union is now calling for a indefinite strikealways denouncing the contempt of management.
The SNPL explains that “ Since the takeover of the CAIRE Group in 2002 as majority shareholder, Éric Koury has never ceased to devalue the work of his employees. In all his speeches, the sustainability and/or profitability of this company would depend solely on the lower wages, systematically starting with that of the pilots. Long before the appearance of this name, the Collective Performance Agreement was already a common practice within CAIRE. Already a 2006 agreement was to lower the remuneration of the work done by the pilots. Another sneaky attempt of the same type was thwarted in 2013. In 2014, the calculation rules based on the 2006 salary grid were once again revised downwards, to the detriment of pilots.s”.
In more than 20 years, none of the mandatory annual negotiations (NAOnot always held although compulsory) did not bring any advantage to the pilots “, assures the union. ” NEVER ! The NAOs constantly end up with a protocol of “disagreement”! In 20 years, the employees of this company have never received the slightest participation bonus. NEVER ! In 20 years, the employees of this company have never received the slightest profit-sharing bonus. NEVER ! In 20 years, wages have never been revalued. NEVER ! “.
Yet, the union points out, the cost of living “ has indeed increased considerably in 20 years. So much so that even the level of minimum wage approached the salary level of co-pilots at CAIRE. It is hopeless ! Each year, a use or social benefits are withdrawn. Every year, the management makes us lose the holidays to be carried forward: an ‘annual computer bug’ very regularly cancels our deferred holidays “.
” Work more, always to earn less is not enough for our management, continues the SNPL. ” Our working conditions degrade simultaneously, year after year. The heat in the cockpits, the condition of the seats, the services such as the meals served to the crews during their in-flight services (downright ridiculous recently), the frequent and sometimes very late changes to our schedules, are all hazards that we face daily “.
The manager would nevertheless claim to want to save the company, but ultimately “behaves like a gravedigger of CAIRE”. He asserts that an upgrading of pilots’ working conditions would cost 2.5 million euroswhile according to the SNPL “ it is inaccurate, when we look at the legal economic and social database, although sparingly communicated to employees for 20 years; it would cost him much less than 2.5 million to revalue all CAIRE employees by 20% “. The union has been asking him for three years to open the company’s accounts to its employees, and affirms that ” even the experts duly mandated by the CSE do not obtain these figures. Hindrance! We are used to it “.
If you have to shout loudly to be heard, it is all together that we are going to give voice to carry and make our demands heard and initiate a turning point in the management of this company, if finally our Chairman and CEO deigns to come and negotiate with his employees, who have been mistreated for too long! A company cannot be saved without social dialoguel”, concludes the CAIRE section of the SNPL.
