Air France Strike Called Off

Air France has averted its cabin crew’s so-called solidarity strike, which was to coincide with the second of two British Airways cabin crew strikes. Air France’s crew is similarly unhappy about its own working conditions.

Details aren’t nearly as abundant as in British Airways’ case, but the New York Times reports that “unions representing Air France cabin crews called off a strike planned to begin [March 28] and will return to negotiations,” and Connexion, an English-language paper in France, says “Air France wanted to remove one member of cabin crew from each of its Airbus A319 models. Management have now agreed to postpone this until at least next year—and the unions have dropped their strike threat.”

Speaking of details, there’s a great post over at CrankyFlier outlining the differences between British Airways’ and Air France’s approach to strike management. Basically, British Airways has been proactive, forthcoming, and responsible, while Air France has seemed unconcerned, and never even bothered to post any strike-related information on its website. Maybe management there knew the strike was a bluff?

British Airways, by contrast, offered no-fee flight changes long before the strike was even official, and has kept updated schedules prominently featured on its website. That’s how you do customer service, and also how you get the public on your side in a nasty labor dispute.