Strike Till You Crash The Company. Who Will Be The Winner Then?

[cassa333]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44021431

One wonders at the mess the company made of things but for staff to push it over the edge... well they deserve unemployment if that's is what they really want.

[Gromit]

The company seem to be capable of ruining the survival of the airline without the Unions. Air France-KLM reported a net loss of €269m (£238m) in the first quarter of the year. Clearly it is badly run, so bad industrial relations with its workforce are part of that.

Like BA, Air France are offering a Premium package, when the traveller is no longer to pay for that. If ir cease trading, there are plenty of carriers to take over. If their business model is outdated and no longer fit for purpose, it wouldn’t really matter if it closed.

[237SJ]

Probably crappy management paying themselves huge salaries and first class travel for life while running the company into the ground.

[cassa333]

I do think bad management, not being competitive in this market and outdated working practices are a good reason it is not profitable but for people to go on Strickland so much when it is just a sneeze away from closure is very short sighted of them.

[237SJ]

^Maybe they have nothing to lose

[cassa333]

They have. Their jobs.

Reform and keep your job or drive it into the ground and become unemployed.

[jourdain2]

They are French. French confidence in the state reigns supreme. They do not think like us (I keep on and on saying this!). It is really unimaginable to them that the state will allow the airline to fail.

I fear that they may be brutally disillusioned - but this would be a huge crunch point for Macron. If he dared to let the airline go to the wall he could well lose all the support he has - France before all and for the French. Granted that a wobble in the 'fraternite' has been obvious for a while, it will be interesting to see if the depth of belief pans out.

[237SJ]

The state can't really stop it failing (even though they own part of it) It's illegal to shore up a company in the EU. Still, good to see the CEO has run away (as I said before) with the no doubt first class travel for him and his family for life. Get out while the going is good!

[cassa333]

Just found this as a lighter note to strikes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44022004

[jourdain2]

237SJ it may be illegal to shore up a company in the EU, but I have never yet seen a situation in which France obeys EU law to the detriment of France. That's why it is so interesting to see what Macron will do - dare he really break the mould? Given his record- he may do so. Even more interesting. :)

[237SJ]

There is only so much that they can do http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/government_aid_en.html

[EDDIE51]

The French seem to be more prone to strikes than other nations. Air traffic controllers, trawlermen,ferry operators now airline workers.The one thing in common is that it always inconveniences ordinary travelers. I remember the trawlermen blockaded the ports for weeks and caused total chaos .

[jourdain2]

EDDIE any complaint from me - long delay of arrival of something etc. - was inevitably met by a Gallic shrug and 'C'est la greve'. It's hard to get through to others how the right to strike is so engrained in the French psyche. A friend of mine's live-in lady is French and she has driven us bonkers with her unthinking assumption that one accepts the inconveniences without thinking about whether or not the cause is just. Some years later, she is beginning to question - and I think the rest of France is slowly beginning to open up to the fact that strikers are not always the horribly downtrodden masses and 'vive la revolution'! :)

[jourdain2]

237SJ Yes, I know - but what people don't understand is that that France disobeys the rules. They are paying huge amounts in fines for doing so, but it keeps the peace. Small example - my French doctor told me some years ago that the farmers were killing the countryside(and, therefore, us). They were,and are using forbidden weedkillers etc. because they have huge stockpiles of them. The swallows were disappearing in the Spring before I left. Recent reports say that the French countryside is now almost bereft of songbirds. It's a disaster. But they are doing it because they are French and that is what they always do.

The mindset is unimaginable to most British. I lived there for 15 years.

[Deskdiary]

It is clear from 237sj's answers that he or she has never been in a business environment. Gromit is also showing business naivety.

NO manager ever wants to see the business they are managing fail, and as a rule that want to look after their employees.

To suggest anything to the contrary is silliness.

[237SJ]

In what capacity have you been in a "Business environment"? And for many decades?