Air France-KLM’s new CEO faces strike threat
paris/montreal — Air FranceKLM’s new chief executive officer got a warning from one of the carrier’s labour unions: satisfy our pay demands or we’ll walk off the job again.
Ben Smith, Air Canada’s operations chief, will take over as CEO by September 30, the Paris-based airline said in a statement late on Thursday. He succeeds Jean-Marc Janaillac, who quit this year after failing to end a series of crippling strikes at Air France-KLM. The airline said it would announce details “as soon as possible” on the post of non-executive chairman.
Smith will have to cut costs and improve operations in a competitive industry while trying to rein in disgruntled unions, all with the French state looking over his shoulder. The poisonous atmosphere should come as no surprise: In 2015, a protest of job cuts by Air France workers near Charles de Gaulle Airport ended up with two managers having their shirts ripped off as they were trying to escape. Janaillac staked his job on a staff vote on his plans — and lost.
“We’re still determined to succeed in our demands,” Vincent Salles, a representative of the CGT union, said in an interview Friday on France Info. “Thus, yes, there’s a strong risk of strikes if Ben Smith isn’t capable of renewing a dialogue with the unions of Air France.”
Until Smith takes over, Air France-KLM will retain the governance structure put in place after Janaillac’s resignation. Nonexecutive Chairman Anne-Marie Couderc will keep her role in the interim period. In the statement, she called Smith “a man who prefers dialogue” who had “developed and implemented the historical long-term win-win agreements with the airline’s social partners.”
Air France shares fell 2 per cent to €8.88 at 9:12am in Paris. They’ve lost 33 per cent this year.
“I am well aware of the competitive challenges the Air FranceKLM Group is currently facing and I am convinced that the airlines’ teams have all the strengths to succeed in the global airline market,” Smith said in the statement.