orbitmic

http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/artic...3785_3234.html

Note that there were union representative elections at AF a few days ago. The CGT got a bullocking. The SNPL (which "sponsored" last Autumn's pilots strike) went down in weight but is still by far the largest pilots' unions. AdJ was stupid enough to claim that only the unions that support the "Transform" plan won the elections which is of course simply wrong and probably partly led to the reaction we are seeing now. I think that sometimes we forget that he is also a polytechnicien and enarque who comes across like many (and fortunately not all) other polytechniciens and enarques as apparently convinced of his own superiority over the rest of the world.

brunos

It is more than "come across like".

orbitmic

I actually fully agree with you but I was trying to be non-confrontational!

San Gottardo

In another newspaper article I read that the government discussed with AdJ an extension of his contract. The government backs him under the condition that he gets more involved (whatever that means) and that he personally takes care of mending relations with the various Dutch stakeholders.

orbitmic

Mending is such a beautiful term. Like mending a cloth after it has been played with by a Rottweiler! They really don't have a clue.

RigpigMalta

I just hope that union action is commensurate with their understanding of the state that the AF/KLM Grp are in! It is fine rolling out new P cabins, J cabins fancy advertising et al, but if the base of the company is on shifting sands all this will be for naught

I honestly believe another major french led union action like last summer would likely see the demise of the AF/KL group (not the airlines)

San Gottardo

The trouble with some of the unions is that they do not recognise certain facts. When you read their pamphlets you'll find that they believe that the company is actually profitable (irrespective of what the financial statements say) and that the recent drop of the oil price will boost profits by a further couple of millions of Euros (irrespective of things like hedging, the fact that the oil price is in USD which happens to appreciate against the Euro, irrespective of fuel consumption of planes changing according to load/weather/routing/ATC...).

The recent election results illustrate very clearly what is wrong with the union system in France. This is not a system of collective labour organisation and collective bargaining. The degree of unionisation is among the very lowest in the OECD at less than 8% (comparison: even the evil USA have more than 11% and the ultra-liberal-slaveholders in the UK have more than 25%). That little population then fragments its vote among a myriad of unions, in the case of AF ground personnel for instance resulting in voter shares of 18%, 15%, etc. But the little fragments of a small group of people makes a lot of noise and has the power to stall a company's development.


I honestly believe another major french led union action like last summer would likely see the demise of the AF/KL group (not the airlines)

brunos

A few comments on your posts:

- a minor typo. The impact of oil prices is estimated by some unions in billions not millions.

- it is sad to see the French Government acting defacto as if it was controlling AFKL. Actually, it hold less than 16% of the shares.

- very true about French unions, especially at AFKL. Each type of employee has several unions and they fight each other. They try to outbid each other to gain more votes in the next election rather than adopting a constructive approach.

- I agree with you that the group is likely to implode in case of another heavy union action. That would tempt Alexandre Begougne de Juniac to yield to unions. But his head is between anvil and hammer, with on one side the French Government/unions and on the other the Dutch stakeholders/institutional investors.

bodory

http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-...ce-461102.html

Insiders now say that relationships between AdJ and FG are deteriorating. I am not sure that is a key success factor to support the airline in its transformation.

orbitmic

I agree with you that some of the unions are completely unrealistic and seem to live au pays de Candy. That said, the fact that AF's management is a crucial element to realistically understand the equation. If AF was well managed, then it would be much harder for unions to propose completely unrealistic counter-plans. By contrast, the complete inadequacy of current management combined with its incredible arrogance in claiming that its plan is not only good (despite perpetually being proved not to work) but also the only one is so idiotic that it does not encourage trust in either the people or their plans.

Here, one additional point worth noticing is that every single union is boycotting the meeting with AdJ. Not all unions are crazy and irresponsible, so to manage to upset all of them to such an extent, it is clear to me that AdJ and is team must be doing something (very) wrong.

In short, in my view, the management and the unions just deserve each other, and each party's incompetence absurdly seems to legitimise the other's absurd reactions.

San Gottardo

My imagination of their stupidity is more limited than that precise object of my imagination. That's me being naive and well-meaning - again!

Sad sure, but what do you expect? Believing that they have to put their nose and their word into corporate matters is deeply inrooted in French governments since centuries. And the people actually expect it!

Absurd and idiotic, isn't it? The ship is sinking and the crew are debating with each other how to tell the captain that the buckets to fight the inflowing water are too heavy. "Il ne faut pas prendre les gens pour des c@ns, mais il ne faut oublier qu'ils le sont" ("Les Inconnus", in a 1980s sketch)

Actually it was RigpigMalta who made the comment about the group impliding after another major strike. I just forgot to delete it from my quote or at least put quote signs around it. I do agree with him/her, but have nothing to add.

San Gottardo

True, but without the unions the airline would have made a profit in FY 2014. Because of the unions, it didn't. Management ain't great, but unions just made it worse.

orbitmic

Do you think so? My understanding from their investors' data was that even without the strike the company would have lost money? They all seem bad to me anyway!!

jshastri

I have been following the whole AF-KL management issues for a while now, and I honestly believe ADJ is doing the right things to get the group profitable. Under his watch we have gotten a substantially better on board product in all classes, brand new and fresh advertising campaign, consolidation of airlines into HOP!, expansion of Transavia and its new fresh brand image.

Costs have been cut, but the unions are not letting more of it to happen. Air France and KLM need a lot more consolidation among various departments. On board product is already moving towards that, with KL introducing the Cirrus on future aircraft. Hop! needs to act as the feeder for Air France in Paris, while Transavia does the point to point and fights the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair head on.

The KLM product over the years has improved dramatically as well, sure the short haul product has somewhat gotten worse with the chargeable bags and so forth, but until Transavia can get to the size it needs to KL is kind of acting like a semi lcc on Euro flights.

When he took over the mess the previous management left, he has to be bad guy and clean it up. No one said that these plans for 2015 and 2020 would be painless.

orbitmic

Why am I not (at all) sharing any of your enthusiasm?...