Difficult start to collective labor agreement negotiations

KLM proposals

In the previous newsletter, we also shared KLM’s proposals with you. Based on the disappointing results, KLM is putting the brakes on. KLM is not offering a wage increase for the next two years and a productivity improvement of 5% is being sought in all areas. With this, KLM wants to realize a significant part of the announced and important redirection operation ‘Back on Track’ (a total of about 450 million euros). According to Marjan Rintel, this is a ‘dire necessity’.

Position of the Union

We have informed KLM that we understand that KLM’s current result and the ambitious investment agenda are difficult to combine. To be able to continue investing, a good result is needed. But then it’s not just about costs, but also about revenues and good management.

We find it difficult to understand that KLM’s ground staff now have to pay the bill. After all, the inability to use the full ICA capacity (lack of pilots), Schiphol’s higher costs and the threat of a possible restriction of the number of flight movements cannot be blamed on the ground staff.

The ground staff seem to have run out of steam. Good wage agreements in the current collective labor agreement have ensured that KLM has stopped a significant part of the labor market allowances. KLM doesn’t want to go back in time and have to reintroduce labor market surcharges to stay in line with the market, does it? Further flexibilization also often has a negative impact on the workload and absenteeism. And they are already high! Not to mention the possible impact of the announced reduction in the number of employees at Land (back to the number at the beginning of 2024).

What next?

That is a question that we cannot really answer at the moment. Painfully enough, the real consequences of all the ‘Back on Track’ measures are still not clear, and our commitment and that of KLM for the new collective labor agreement are miles apart.

Negotiations at Grond will continue next week. This seems to put us ahead of the negotiations at Cabin and Cockpit. We will initially continue to talk about a number of ongoing matters from the previous collective labor agreement. The real wage negotiations will not take place until the end of January 2025 in Multi-context (all unions).

Poll

At the beginning of next week, you will receive a number of questions from us about KLM’s proposals. In a short poll, we will ask you in more detail what you think of KLM’s flex proposals. With the outcome, in addition to the previous survey, we can continue to point out the opinion of our members to KLM. After all, we will continue to listen to you. Now it’s up to KLM!

So much for this update.

We will keep you informed.

Sincerely,
also on behalf of the delegation members,

Huug Brinkers
Advocate

Last Wednesday, collective bargaining with KLM resumed. We have not actually got