The war of words between Cargolux and its pilots union have intensified with the LCGB union “opening the possibility to initiate industrial actions”.
In November, more than 94% of the LCGB members at Cargolux voted in favour of industrial action if negotiations were unsuccessful.
Today's sharply worded statement from the LCGB comes after management at the European all-cargo carrier said that talks on a new collective work agreement (CWA) with the pilots' representatives were cut short after the union “surprisingly backtracked on the agreement in principal reached on December 1”.
The airline said the OGBL, the smaller of the two pilots’ unions, and CLSC ground staff union had confirmed their intention to sign a new working agreement this week.
Cargolux added: “LCGB and its members are seemingly unable to accept their responsibility for job security and growth in Luxembourg and to accept the necessity of inevitable change. Cargolux cannot help but wonder about the reliability and credibility of a social partner who agrees on certain compromises, only to negate their own decisions days later.”
In its response statement, issued 24 hours after the Cargolux salvo, the LCGB said: “After more than a year, the negotiations for a new collective work agreement at Cargolux have failed yesterday because management was unwilling to transpose the principles agreed upon last week into the text of the new collective work agreement.”
The union added: “In spite of the LCGB proposed savings regarding personnel costs worth up to $10m per year, the negotiations failed based on unneglectable points.”
These boil down to three main points, the first being that the union wants a limit on the size of the Cargolux Italia subsidiary's freighter fleet — set at four freighters — to be longer than three years requested by management.
The second point revolves around continued pilot interest representation by its own union, and the third point concerns extended collaboration between the union and management on new European Commission rules governing pilot duty and rest periods which come into effect from February 2016.
