Following their colleagues on the ground, KLM pilots are now also threatening to take action if their employer does not quickly come up with better employment conditions.
The pilots do not only want financial compensation, the Association of Dutch Airline Pilots (VNV) – the union for civil aviation pilots – emphasizes today. a press release. They are also concerned about a lower workload and future prospects. The latter not only for themselves, but also for their employer.
Because the collective labor agreement consultations between the union and KLM have been at a standstill since August, VNV today asked several members whether they were prepared to continue. And they are: the members ‘en masse expressed their dissatisfaction with KLM’s attitude’ and are prepared to take action to demand better conditions.
According to VNV, KLM is shooting itself in the fingers if it does not agree to the pilots’ demands. The union says it would like to help the airline solve the staff shortage in the cockpit, which will provide KLM ‘hundreds of millions of euros in additional income’.
As far as pilots are concerned, the collective labor agreement must stipulate that they can always do their work responsibly, even if – as is now the case – there is a major shortage of pilots. “We also want an unequivocal commitment from KLM that safety will always come first and recognition that the airline pilot plays a crucial role in this,” the association said in the press release.
One pilot or zero pilots in the cockpit
The shortage of pilots can be partially solved by requiring aircraft to have not two, but one pilot in the cockpit, the association emphasizes. Major aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing have been developing aircraft that are operated by one pilot in the air and one on the ground for years.
Although it is still a thing of the future, according to VNV that future is ‘not far away’. The association is not negative about this development, but believes it can ‘only be discussed if it can be done safely’. VNV therefore wants to be involved in its introduction at an early stage.
Not one, but zero pilots in the cockpit is the next step. For example, in January this year, Boeing conducted a successful test with a fully autonomous passenger aircraft. You don’t have to think about a size 737 MAX for the time being: instead of hundreds of passengers The PAV currently only offers space for two passengers.
Threat
For ground staff, threatening action seems to be paying off. After trade unions FNV and CNV consulted with KLM out of dissatisfaction about a lack of progress had stopped, many members felt the time was ripe for strikes. After being handed an ultimatum, the company complied still adding water to the wine. The members can now decide whether they think this is sufficient. By the way, small unions such as De Unie and NVLT not yet agreed.