Travelers are welcome again at Schiphol after an hours-long strike by KLM ground staff on Saturday morning. A spokesperson for Schiphol has announced this. Earlier in the day, the airport called on travelers who had scheduled flights until 3 p.m. not to come – the strike, which has now ended, had caused chaos and crowds at the terminals. Anyone flying from Schiphol later today would do well to arrive on time, according to the airport. “The advice is to be at Schiphol two hours in advance for a European destination and three hours for an intercontinental one.”
Images show that in the course of the morning there was great crowds at Schiphol: by noon travelers were queuing outside the departure halls for the check-in counters. Rijkswaterstaat closed the exits to Schiphol from the A4 Saturday morning temporarily off in both directions – around 12.30 pm the service released the exits again. Several flights have been delayed and cancelled, although it is not clear exactly how many, according to spokespersons for KLM and Schiphol.
Just before noon, KLM staff went back to work, according to FNV, without the airline making any commitments during talks with the strikers. KLM says it will continue the talks “in the coming period”.
Strike ended
According to Joost van Doesburg, Schiphol campaign manager at the FNV trade union, the platform staff of the airline went on strike. They are responsible for loading and unloading the luggage at the aircraft. The employees are “furious” about their working conditions and fear for their position because of KLM’s plan to outsource part of their work to an independent handling company. All 150 platform employees employed by KLM took part in the strike, according to Van Doesburg.
Although the strike has not yet yielded much for the employees, union leader Van Doesburg – who was not involved in organizing the strike – says that they have returned to work. “Especially with a view to the traveler and safety, they have resumed work,” says Van Doesburg.
KLM said on Saturday morning that “very limited flight handling” was taking place, but was unable to answer questions about how many flights have been cancelled. However, the company acknowledged that “this work stoppage” has “far-reaching consequences” for travelers. “KLM is going to talk to the employees of the ground operation this morning,” the company reported a few hours after the start of the strike.
Staff shortage
According to Van Doesburg, the immediate reason for the strike was an email that KLM sent to the platform staff last Thursday, in the hands of NRC† In it, the airline wrote that it would hire the independent handling company Viggo to make up for existing staff shortages. According to KLM, this is necessary to “get the occupation in order” and to give its own staff “more breathing room”. On Saturday morning, the company acknowledged “that the workload is high” and says it is doing “everything” to solve the shortages.
According to FNV, the decision to hire Viggo was wrong for KLM employees. They would fear for their jobs. “Employees are afraid that KLM will outsource their jobs entirely and that they will lose their position,” says Van Doesburg. In addition, Viggo employees have better working conditions due to a recently concluded collective labor agreement: the strikers argue that the shortages at the airline would not be so great if KLM improved its own working conditions.
The first day of the May holiday is traditionally one of the busiest days at Schiphol of the year – around 200,000 people are expected to board the plane that day. The strike started at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning and ended just before 12 noon. It would be a so-called wildcat strike, which was not organized by a union. Shared on Twitter Van Doesburg images of the room at Schiphol where the employees were, even though the union leader was not present there.
Cut-throat competition
KLM employs its own staff to handle baggage, but there are also six separate handling companies at Schiphol, including Viggo. That is relatively much: other European airports have two or three handlers. In recent years, the competition between these seven players has hardened. They stunted fares and tried to take each other’s customers, the airlines, away. As a result, Schiphol has become one of the cheapest airports in Europe for airlines.
FNV stated that this struggle has been at the expense of the employment conditions of the staff who perform these tasks – and even saw the support of the employers’ association WPBL. Last month, the six independent handling companies concluded a joint collective labor agreement. Employees who earned just above the minimum wage before the agreements (9.96 euros per hour with a 40-hour working week), gain an average of 7.5 percent. For some employees, that means a salary increase of more than 30 percent in the next three years.
KLM’s apron staff are not covered by this collective labor agreement, but by those of the airline itself. As a result, employees earn a lot less, and they also receive a permanent contract less often, says union leader Van Doesburg. “It is true that there is a major staff shortage at KLM, but why is that? Because KLM pays the least by distance and does not offer permanent contracts.”
Also read: Collective labor agreement for baggage workers against a ‘race to the bottom’ at the airport