ALPL and Associazione Piloti Cargolux Italia (APCI) are glad to announce the signing of a Cooperation Agreement.
Cargolux Italia has been a hot topic for all Cargolux pilots since it started operation in 2009.
The initial plan from management to operate one aircraft on the Italian AOC with Cargolux pilots under the terms of the Cargolux CWA and to wet lease out further capacity to Cargolux Italia if needed was supported by most Cargolux pilots to enable the Company to benefit from the Italian cargo market.
However, the situation changed dramatically in 2014/2015, when Cargolux management used Cargolux Italia as a leverage in the CWA negotiations and transferred three additional aircraft to Italy within nine months.
Today Cargolux Italia operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargolux Airlines S.A. with centralized commercial sales, operations control, network planning functions and recruitment process, but without a negotiated Collective Work Agreement and under different terms and conditions.
For some years ALPL have been in close contact with the colleagues at Cargolux Italia and provided support in their efforts to build up their own representative body. What went on quietly resulted in the foundation of the Associazione Piloti Cargolux Italia (APCI), who got recently engaged in negotiations with the Italian management for the first Cargolux Italia collective work agreement ever.
Looking into the future, Cargolux ALPL Divisional Board and APCI Board agree that the tactical separation of both pilot groups by their respective managements must be avoided.
Furthermore, it is the common position of the Boards of ALPL and APCI that ultimately all pilots in both airlines shall be employed under the framework of the Luxembourg collective work agreement to ensure commonality of working conditions and provide career perspective for all pilots in the Cargolux Group. In addition to this, it must be ensured that any changes to the allocation of capacity (i.e., number of aircraft) assigned to the respective airlines should have no negative impact to the job security, career progression or employment opportunities for the members of ALPL and APCI.
To underscore this position and to send a clear signal to the managements of Cargolux and Cargolux Italia, ALPL and APCI signed a cooperation agreement.
Thanks to this agreement any member of APCI in good standing will automatically be recognized as an Associate Member of ALPL in accordance with the terms and conditions of ALPL statutes. They can be declared by ALPL for the purpose of votes or fees relating to ECA/IFALPA affiliation and they could join the insurance scheme of APPN or became members of it. In practice APCI will function similar to current Divisional Bodies in ALPL.
The close cooperation between Cargolux ALPL Board and the APCI should help to prevent what has happened in the past and what is most likely the intention of management now and in the future, namely, to use the existence of both airlines as a leverage in the respective CWA negotiations and to play off both pilot groups against each other.
For clarification, this development does not change the position in the ongoing negotiations and the claim to protect the jobs and career perspective of all pilots working for Cargolux Luxembourg and Cargolux Italia by maintaining the current number of airplanes.
The agreement is to be seen as part of our strategy in the mid and long term to mitigate and in best case even eliminate the threat of outsourcing and social dumping in the future.
