In Toulouse, the site of Air France Industries threatened?
After a new walkout of several hours on Thursday May 12, the 280 employees of the Air France Industries site, located near Toulouse-Blagnac airport, have decided to renew their strike action for the days to come. The reason ? Confirmation of the order for 60 A220s from the French company with the manufacturer Airbus. The link between the two? The consequences on their activity and therefore the sustainability of their employment.
Air France has opted for this aircraft, for which this first order also includes some thirty of these optional aircraft, in order to withdraw the A318, A319 and A320 from its fleet in the next few years. These new-generation aircraft are particularly less noisy and above all less energy-consuming. However, this strategic choice has consequences for the Air France maintenance site based in Toulouse, which is also the only one in the provinces.
“Here, we were in charge of all the servicing and maintenance of the A320 family aircraft in the fleet. Today, we are told that they are going to be replaced by A220s. But their maintenance is done and is planned to be done only in Parisian centers”, regrets Rémi Carlier, CGT union representative at Air France Industries.
A trade union front against management
In addition to the CGT, the Force Ouvrière and Sud Aérien unions are also opposed to this reorganization. “The employees legitimately claim that the maintenance of the new fleet replacing the A320 family should be theirs in order to maintain the activity of the center and thus sustain their jobs and their future.“, thus wrote all three in a joint press release.
“The maintenance plan for new-generation aircraft requires less frequent maintenance operations (than old-generation aircraft) with initial deadlines set for 2026 for the A220. Site activity therefore had to be organized in order to “ensure its sustainability in the short and medium term”, explains to La Tribune a spokesperson for Air France.
For the unions, the other aspect of this subject is financial. “The management explained to us that it was not possible to duplicate the investments for the maintenance of these new devices, namely on the Paris sites and on the Toulouse site.“, plague Remi Carlier. “All entities ofAir France participate in the company’s transformation plan aimed at improving its results, in the context of a crisis whose lingering effects“, wishes to contextualize this source within the French company.
In itself, this announcement is not new internally. Air France management specifies that this project was presented to employees of the Toulouse site in the summer of 2020. Since then, the health crisis has complicated the mobilization of employees and opponents of this decision have therefore been mobilized mainly since mid- April. Today, 85% of production workers are on strike according to the unions.
A recent voluntary departure plan
However, the viability of the site in the short term is not threatened by the admission of several union sources. Despite the announced loss of maintenance of the A320 family, the Toulouse site must recover the upkeep and maintenance of jumbo jets according to the plan provided by Air France management. Approximately 12 million euros of investment are planned on site to carry out adaptation work on the hangars, between June and October 2022.
“The Air France management project consists of a paradigm shift since the production historically based on the maintenance of the Air France fleet would disappear to make way for production from military aircraft maintenance sites (AWCS, A330 MRTT)”, write the three unions in their press release.
In the facts, “they will replace the six lines that could each accommodate an A320 with only two lines to accommodate these aircraft“, specifies the representative of the CGT. “Today, the AWSS does not fit in our hangars. In addition, these planes mobilize less personnel. An AWSS is only 30 agents per day“, he continues. An aspect of which the management of Air France is aware since it carried out a voluntary departure plan during the year 2021 for its Toulouse site, which concerned 80 people. workforce that worries the unions when this factory had 575 employees when it opened in 2004.
The 280 employees still in place will meanwhile be required to work on the Parisian sites for a few weeks, while the work is being carried out, which will allow the company to help them maintain “their” future devices. “All arrangements have been made to cover and advance to employees the costs when they carry out reinforcements at Paris-Charles de Gaulle“, promises Air France. According to the unions, and in order to motivate the employees, an agreement with a hotel would have been reached to avoid these technicians having to advance the costs of their travels which are announced regularly until the end of the third trimester.
Avoid mono-activity
Despite these prospects for the Toulouse site, the employees concerned do not seem as reassured about their future. “This project would lock us into a mono-activity which could jeopardize all the jobs on the site, if the military contracts were not renewed.“, explains the inter-union.
“The AWAC is a program that is 45 years old already! This is what we are given…We are also promised to recover the maintenance of the A330s from the Air France civil fleet but they too must be withdrawn from the fleet As for the French army’s A330-MRTTs, they only have three today and the army plans to have a maximum of a dozen. negotiate with Airbus to renew the maintenance contract for these aircraft. And if it is not renewed? Rémi Carlier of the CGT.
Despite these fears, the management of Air France wants to be reassuring. “The AWACS maintenance charge, subtle from the site ofAir France Industries de Paris-CDG, will be supplemented by the maintenance of long-haul Airbus aircraft on behalf ofAir France or customer companies ofAir France Industries“, guarantees a spokesperson for the company. Sufficient to remove the specter of a perilous mono-activity for any industrial site as can be seen from the Bosch factory in Rodez in Aveyron?