The main air traffic controllers’ union, the SNCTA, has filed a strike notice for Thursday April 25 to denounce a new version, according to it “unacceptable”, of a protocol currently being negotiated aimed at restructuring air navigation services . “The version published (by the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, DGAC) is in no way signable for the SNCTA which considers it a provocation if not an insult,” indicates the union on its website. The organization, which represents 60% of the votes among the controllers, evokes without further details a “about-face” which “directly calls into question the sincerity of the negotiations and the compromises found so far”. In a press release, it indicates that it has refused to participate in a meeting called “urgently” by the DGAC on Wednesday afternoon.
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When asked, the DGAC did not wish to react, the SNCTA was not immediately reachable. Another union, UNSA-UTCAC, also announced its refusal to participate in this meeting and also filed a strike notice for April 25, demanding “the immediate launch of real consultation”. The negotiations, which began 15 months ago, plan to overhaul the organization of air traffic control in France, in particular the territorial coverage of air navigation services, to reorganize the work of controllers to cope with the announced increase in air traffic in in return for increases in remuneration and hiring.
In September, the SNCTA adopted the principle of an “Olympic truce” with the general directorate of civil aviation, conditioned by “an increase in compensation” and new salary discussions after the Olympics. He also supported the law, which came into force at the start of the year, requiring controllers to individually declare their participation in a strike two days in advance. Air traffic was regularly disrupted in 2023 by strikes by air traffic controllers, particularly during the conflict over pension reform.
