Air France’s email regarding violence towards official at union meeting
 

Dear Sir, Madam,

I am sure that like all of us, you were shocked by the events that took place at the end of Air France’s Central Works Council meeting last Monday.

What we all saw does not represent Air France.

These violent acts were the work of isolated individuals and do not reflect the reality nor the ambition of your airline. Furthermore, these events did not disrupt our flights in any way.

In a highly competitive world, Air France needs to take brave steps to ensure its future as a leading airline with global ambitions. As you've no doubt noticed when you travel with us, Air France is committed to an unprecedented transformation of its products and services.

Our goal is simple: to offer you a high quality product, with a French touch that makes us stand out. We will continue to do this.

We are doing all we can to earn your trust and look forward to welcoming you again soon on one of our flights.

Frédéric Gagey and the teams at Air France

I am blown away that this didn't even get a mention on Flyertalk until now!

i was blown away that I received such an email

Myriad ways they could spin this from a PR perspective. "Physically violent labor demonstration" could be a marketed as "a French touch that makes us stand out" :D

It was extensively discussed on the AF forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...er-year-8.html

It naturally belongs to the AF forum because KLM is not involved in any way. That sinister incident took place at the end of a union/management council meeting of the French airline Air France (a subsidiary of AFKL group).

This email denies the management responsibility
 

Why say 'What we all saw does not represent Air France'?
That sentence does 2 things:

1. it creates a sense of 'we' between the writer and the reader, opposite to the events on Monday, which is then 'they' (without saying it). 'They are not us' it says.
2. it says that the event has nothing to do with Air France

So in a way the Air France Management says 'We have nothing to do with this'.

Come on !

What we saw was ugly. That is true. But it represents the emotions and culture of the French employees. Wether we like it or not, that is part of the Air France culture. And the Air France corporate culture IS the responsibility of the senior management.

This letter I find problematic, as a customer.
I am a frequent flyer, and am in flight twice a week.

This letter worries me. If a company is so troubled, where the senior management takes no responsibility whatsoever over the corporate culture that it has created. A culture that could have led to these exact events that we have seen, and which is a culture that clearly has severe symptoms of disease. A management that therefore, after this email, will allow this culture to fester.
Do I want to step in flights of that company?
What if one of those outraged pilots takes a 'Germanwings decision' in the cockpit?

In my expectation, I would like to have seen senior managers take responsibility and resign. I would have liked to see such credible and responsible behavior that will reassure me that the management will also be successful in curing the disease in their corporate culture.

You are right, I apologize. I didn't even look at that thread, because I thought it was a subject that didn't interest me.

I didn't receive that email. I'll admit it doesn't resonate to me either and I personally think that it is the wrong thing to communicate about.

I got it.
Did not strike me as a good email.
Did not say much and only raised awareness of the incident with those who did not know about it. The youtube campaign is quite empty too.

I got the email; since I was PE until several years ago (I am now Ivory), I thought they sent it to all FB members. I found it strange, though, that my wife, who never joined FB, also got it: she flew AF once in the last 15 years, namely an award flight from SFO to CDG six years ago! I didn't even know that they had her address, since everything had gone through me. Really amazing...

My wife also got it (both ivory).
I wonder if a French version exists. Anyone got it in French?

My wife reaction is similar to previous posts. "What we all saw does not represent Air France." That is weird, what does it mean?

Exactly. This is just dumb.

Like others, I was unaware of the incident until I read the email (I've been in China since last Sunday and don't get to read much news ;)).

I was surprised by it, actually, and I also think it's a bit of a faux pas from the AF marketing folks.

-- Henly

I did :
Madame, Monsieur,

Vous avez, comme chacun d’entre nous, été frappés par les événements qui se sont déroulés à l’issue du Comité Central d’Entreprise d’Air France lundi dernier.
Ce que nous avons tous vu, ce n’est pas Air France.
Soyez en convaincus, ces violences ont été le fait d'individus isolés et ne reflètent ni la réalité ni l’ambition de votre compagnie. Ces événements n’ont d’ailleurs pas perturbé nos vols.
Dans un monde extrêmement concurrentiel, Air France doit prendre des mesures courageuses afin d’assurer son avenir dans le peloton de tête des compagnies aériennes à vocation mondiale. Vous l’avez sans doute perçu en voyageant avec nous, Air France est engagée dans une transformation sans précédent de ses produits et services.
Notre ambition est simple : vous offrir un produit de haute qualité, avec cette touche d’art de vivre à la française qui fait notre différence. Nous poursuivrons dans cette voie.
Nous faisons tout pour mériter votre confiance et serons heureux de vous accueillir prochainement sur nos lignes.

Frédéric Gagey et les équipes d’Air France

Somehow, I actually think that it sounds even more ridiculous and pathetic in French than it does in English. My sense is that management is merely cynically exploiting the events of last week to sponsor a bit of propaganda in favour of their nonsensical plans as though having idiots against you necessarily made you intelligent...