Geneva International Airport, the second largest in Switzerland, expects air traffic to return to normal on Saturday after the lifting of a strike by its staff.
Genève Aéroport, however, recommends travelers to check with their airline, stressing that “despite this return to normality, we must fear repercussions for the accumulated delays” on Friday, during this historic strike by company employees public.
Finally an agreement was reached with the staff who were protesting against a review of the salary policy. The agreement establishes that the management, the Public Service Union and the Personnel Advisory Commission have one year to agree on the parameters and methods of implementation of the salary reform, to be implemented in January 2025.
138 flights canceled
Late in the afternoon, the airport had indicated that 138 flights had to be canceled on the first day of summer vacation departures. The operators who ensure the guidance of the planes on the runway having withdrawn, the airport had decided to stop all traffic between 6 and 10 in the morning for security reasons.
Dozens of other flights were delayed, causing many queues outside and at the airport, but without creating an angry movement among struggling passengers, as unions and strikers camped out in front of the building’s entrance, chanting slogans. “It’s not worse than a snowy day,” the general director of Genève Aéroport, André Schneider, summed up to journalists about the four hours in which no plane could take off or land.
After a meeting with management in the morning, the unionists had renewed the strike for the whole day and on Saturday. But the ground controllers did not follow this decision, unlike the rest of the striking staff, traffic was able to resume shortly after 08:00 GMT, albeit at a slower pace.
Airport growth at half mast
The agreement reached between the parties was announced after a meeting of trade unionists with the cantonal authorities of Geneva. The airport is an autonomous public establishment belonging to the State of Geneva. According to the chairman of the board of directors of Genève Aéroport, Pierre Bernheim, the revision of the company’s salary policy is justified by the growth forecasts for the airport at half mast. “We can no longer afford to have automatic annual salaries,” he said.
The Swiss airline had warned that all Friday morning flights out of Geneva would be affected. Easyjet was also affected, with Geneva being a major hub for the low-cost carrier. Strikes are very rare in Switzerland.
“We have the right to strike when we have exhausted all the resources and the consultation process,” Claire Pellegrin, 43, president of the airport’s personnel commission, told AFP. “It’s the ultimate solution.” The social conflict had been latent for several days.
This strike is historic: it is the first in Cointrin’s 104-year history involving airport staff with a public law contract (and not external collaborators, who are also vital to its operation), local media reported. During the period from January to May, the airport, which has more than 1,000 employees, received almost 6.8 million passengers, according to official statistics.
Source: BFM TV
