In light of all our efforts and attempts during 27 negotiation meetings, 5 meetings at the ONC and considering that the sixteen-week conciliation deadline stipulated by the Labor Code expired on 14 July 2023, both Unions, LCGB and OGBL, have signed and sent a letter to the ONC today where they decree non-conciliation.
This process is in accordance with the mandate obtained during the ratification process in July from all members of both Unions.
Although the contracting Unions, LCGB and OGBL, are willing to find solutions in this matter at any time, at present, it must be acknowledged that the negotiations have failed.
The letter to the ONC includes a request to proceed in accordance with Article L.164-5, paragraph (4), as well as Article L.164-6 of the Labor Code, which foresees that the secretary of the ONC prepares a non-conciliation report signed by the president.
Please standby for further updates and stay united!
CWA Negotiations- Update
Following a meeting with Cargolux management on Wednesday, 30 August 2023, and a meeting at the ONC (Office Nationale de Conciliation) on 31 August 2023, the negotiation committee of both Unions, LCGB and OGBL, regret to conclude that no agreement could be reached.
Consequently, the Unions’ negotiation committee will analyse the situation and decide on possible further steps. Until then, management confirmed during the aforementioned ONC meeting that the Company would honour the CWA.
We ask you for your patience and support during this time and will provide you with further information as soon as they become available.
CWA Negotiations – Result of the CWA Ratification Process
The majority has spoken – the proposal from management has been decisively REJECTED by a majority of our members!
99,02% of our members voted with 85,77% rejecting management’s ‘final’ proposal. That is a clear signal that the vast majority of our members is not accepting management’s proposal indicating that they are willing to take industrial action following an unsuccessful conciliation procedure.
Combined with all LCGB members (including ground staff) the union’s statutory requirements are surpassed, with 91,65% of all eligible LCGB members taking part in the vote and 86,43% of the LCGB members rejecting management’s final proposal.
According to your valued input, the main reason given for rejecting managements proposal is the proposed salary increase of only 3% and the refusal to implement an inflation protection into the CWA.
We congratulate our members again for the extremely high participation rate and we would also like to thank everyone for their patience during the voting process.
The Unions negotiation team will decide on the next steps within the upcoming weeks, and we will inform you accordingly.Again, thank you very much for your support and stay united!
ALPL Debrief 06/2023
In this edition we will provide an overview of management’s ‘final’ offer after an extensive negotiation process where the LCGB negotiation team did its upmost to deliver on the claims ALPL members were demanding.
As management refuses to move from their current position, it is now time for every member to decide for themselves if this package is acceptable or not. In order to allow you to form an opinion before you will be asked to either “accept” or “reject” management’s ‘final’ offer we urge you to watch this edition of “Debrief”.
A presentation summarising management’s ‘final’ offer can be downloaded here. We recommend that you have this presentation available when watching the video.
More information regarding the electronic ratification (vote) will be provided very soon in a separate email.
Before the ratification process commences, two online Q&A sessions will be scheduled on Monday, 17th July 2023 to allow members seek clarification and to better understand what is proposed. The exact times and links will be communicated soon.
CWA Negotiations – Update 07 July 2023
We would like to provide you with an update following several CWA meetings in the last two weeks and the meeting at the ONC on 7 July 2023 to clarify the next steps.
Despite some positive developments in some of the remaining priority claims, e.g. for pilots job security and refleeting, management´s negotiation team obviously still lacks a clear mandate to be in the position to commit to the agreed text that has been negotiated between members of both negotiation teams.
Additionally, management is of the opinion that Cargolux employees are very well remunerated and in combination with the exceptionally high profit share do not deserve a salary increase of more than 2% over the next three years. Furthermore, management firmly rejected any sort of automatic inflation compensation in the CWA in case the present index system in Luxembourg should be amended.
At the ONC, Union representatives highlighted the urgency to come to an agreement to avoid further escalation. It again became very clear that management´s strategy is to delay any possible agreement and to put the Unions under pressure and even threatens to remove acquired rights in the CWA, e.g. progressive early retirement schemes or time unit increases.
The president of the ONC strongly recommended that management presents the status of each claim from their perspective to get clarity where we stand and to provide an improved offer concerning the salary increase in the coming days. She also explicitly mentioned the legal possibility for any of the parties to request a non-conciliation as of 14 July 2023.
Depending on the developments, your ALPL Board will present to you either details of a package and the factual pros and cons to what management is offering or ask you to enable the Unions to increase the pressure by voting for a non-conciliation which is a prerequisite to organize industrial action.
Please stay tuned for important updates in the near future!
ALPL Debrief 05/2023
In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about the last negotiation meetings, which took place on 06 and 15 June 2023 and where we stand in these negotiations. Additionally, a meeting at the ONC was scheduled on 07 June 2023.
The negotiations are ongoing and we still see only little movement of management´s position in regard to our high priority claims. Please take a few minutes of your time to watch this update and get mentally prepared that at some point your support and active engagement as a member might be needed to achieve an acceptable agreement!
Members Update – May 2023
The level of safety within the aviation industry has continuously been improved over the last decades and therefore only few pilots are involved in serious incidents or accidents.
Fortunately, the vast majority will be spared from such events throughout their career, nonetheless we have experienced first-hand how quickly it can happen. Whilst we all are trained to handle non-normals in the simulator on a regular basis, only little knowledge exists about the processes that are set in motion once all checklists have been completed and the aircraft has been parked.
Hence, we would like to remind you that ALPL has an established Flight Safety Committee, which can provide you as a member with the required information and support. Not only have they published Incident and Accident Guidelines, but there is also an Emergency Hotline which is available 24/7 on 365 days of the year.
Please click here to get more information on this topic. We recommend making use of this support system whenever it is required and to save the Emergency Hotline phone number in your contacts.
Finally, we would like to inform you that our colleagues, who have been involved in recent events and reached out to us are getting all the required support they have asked for.
Fly safe!
ALPL Debrief 04/2023
In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about the last negotiation meetings, which took place on 25 and 26 May 2023 and where we stand in these negotiations.
The negotiations are ongoing and we still see a significant gap between the positions of the Unions and management in regard to our high priority claims.
Please take a few minutes of your time to watch this update and get mentally prepared that at some point your support and active engagement as a member might be needed to achieve an acceptable agreement!
CWA negotiations – Update 06 May 2023
On 05 May 2023 another meeting at the Office National de Conciliation (ONC) took place.
The Unions LCGB and OGBL as well as management provided the president of the ONC with an update on the ongoing CWA negotiations and the status of the priority claims since the conciliation process has started.
Referring to Cargolux management’s decision to contest the competence of the ONC on 24 March 2023, the president of the ONC made a clear statement that irrespective of the ongoing legal proceedings, the conciliation process is continuing.
Despite the more active engagement of the management negotiation team and the progress made in certain areas concerning work – life – balance, there is no or only little movement on many major union claims.
The next meeting at the ONC is scheduled for the 07 June 2023. Until then further negotiation meetings are planned to find acceptable solutions on the following 8 priority claims identified by the ONC:
- Salary increase and index protection (common claim)
- Harmonization of night supplements (pilots’ claim)
- New Salary Scale (ground-staff claim)
- Structured feedback (management claim)
- Disciplinary process (common claim)
- Job Security including ICV and refleeting (common claim)
- Working from home (ground-staff claim)
- Time accounts (ground-staff claim)
