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.
ALPL Debrief 2/2023
Following the last negotiation meetings on 18 and 19 January 2023 and due to the slow progress of the negotiations, the Unions requested to have two additional meetings at the beginning of February.
In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about the last meetings, which took place on 01 and 02 February 2023 and where we stand in these negotiations.
Hotel Committee Update – January 2023
We hope that you will find the following Hotel Committee Update useful.
MIA
Due to continued noise problems in our contracted crew hotel it has been decided to temporarily move the crews to the JW Marriott (Maquis) hotel which is located in the same familiar area in Miami.
Another alternative hotel, which is temporarily used, is the Marriott Biscayne Bay, which is located in a different area but has been inspected by the Hotel Committee. It is planned to move back to the AKA hotel once the ongoing renovations are complete. Any feedback on the current alternative hotels would also be appreciated for a potential recommendation to stay if desired by the crews.
BKK
The move to the Shangri La has meanwhile commenced. There were a few starting hick-ups, which should have been resolved meanwhile.
As an example, one such issue was that no breakfast was granted as included on the day of arrival. We are in contact with the local hotel management to discuss any deficiencies.
Last but not least we would like to welcome two new colleagues supporting the Hotel Committee.
Gil Jacobs and Gerald Hulpiau are supporting the existing team and we appreciate their commitment to ensure adequate rest opportunities for all of us. The complete Hotel Committee composition is:
George Karambilas
Jochen Ehrenfeld
Tobias Woll
Jonas Hindersin
Marcel Knapp
Arnout Seynaeve
Gil Jacobs
Gerald Hulpiau
Ingo Schuster
As always, please forward your hotel related reports and feedback to cvhotels@alpl.lu.
ALPL Debrief 1/2023
On 18 January 2023 a further CWA negotiation meeting addressing pilot related claims took place followed by a meeting on 19 January 2023 addressing common claims of interest to both pilots and ground staff. In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about these meetings and where we stand in this negotiation.
Members Update – January 2023
a few weeks ago, China decided to scrap its COVID-19 rules and to reopen the country without almost any notable restrictions after having had in place one of the most restrictive COVID-19 policies worldwide for more than two years.
Shortly thereafter, also Hong Kong lifted its restrictions and basically overnight significantly relaxed its entry requirements.
Whilst we all certainly welcome these changes as a step towards normality, especially in connection with China, the extreme turnaround already leads to a tremendous increase of infections in mainland China and to an overload of their health care system.
With this in mind, we decided to send a letter to the CEO and Flight Operation Management to underscore our position concerning a possible resumption of layovers in China, as well as to address the current layovers in HKG, where we ask to move back to the Shangri La latest after Chinese New Year.
Please click here to read the letter.
ALPL Debrief 9/2022
On 15 December 2022 a further CWA negotiation meeting addressing pilot related claims took place. In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about this meeting.
ALPL Debrief 8/2022
On 15 November 2022 a further CWA negotiation meeting addressing pilot related claims took place. In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about this meeting.
ALPL Debrief 7/2022
On 08 November 2022 a further CWA negotiation meeting took place. In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about this meeting.
ALPL Debrief 6/2022
On 20 October 2022 a further CWA negotiation meeting took place. In this Debrief edition we provide our members with an update about this meeting.
Members Update – B777-8F
On 12 October 2022, Cargolux officially announced the order of 10 Boeing 777-8F aircraft to replace its fleet of Boeing 747-400Fs.
Since it is in the interest of all employees that these aircraft will be flown, maintained and administratively supported by Cargolux staff in Luxembourg within the framework of the existing CWA, LCGB and OGBL took the opportunity to publish a press release in this context.
Please click on below links to read the associated publications.
Communication from the Unions
Luxemburger Wort [DE]
Tageblatt [DE]
RTL [LU]
RTL Today [EN]
RTL 5 minutes [FR]
Le Quotidien [FR]
