Operations at FedEx’s European air hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport have been hit bystrike action over the last few days over a pay dispute, resulting in flight cancellations and a
backlog of parcels and freight shipments. The walkout could end soon, however.Several hundred of the company’s 2,200 employees stopped work in the night of May 11-12 afterannual pay talks between management and unions broke down, French media reported. Unions aredemanding a 5% pay rise and various additional allowances.
Six flights had to be cancelled that night and numerous other flights were delayed. Some 40,000parcels remained unsorted at the airport, the AFP news agency reported, citing union officials. Thestoppage continued on May 13, increasing the backlog to 80,000 parcels, according to thereports.
But the Le Parisien newspaper reported today that unions voted at the weekend to return to worktoday and then to await further talks on May 24 before deciding on further action.
A FedEx Express Europe spokeswoman confirmed to CEP-Research: “FedEx Express and the Frenchunions are currently in annual negotiations with our Roissy-Charles de Gaulle hub employees, whichtake place each May. During this process, some employees have engaged in industrialactions. We will continue to negotiate in good faith and hope to resolve the situation as soonas possible.”
She stressed: “FedEx has contingency plans in place to work around this matter and we arecommitted to providing service to the best of our ability. Some customers, however, may experiencea delay.” The number of affected parcels was “significantly lower” than the reported figure of80,000, she added.
FedEx Express opened its Paris hub in 1999, its second-largest after the Memphis super-hub, andextended it in 2009 to increase capacity and enable further international growth. The facility,with 72,000 sqm of sorting space, has capacity to sort 61,500 documents and packages per hour, andhas parking space for 22 wide-body freighters and 13 feeder planes.
It is served by about 300 weekly flights, including intercontinental flights to/from Asia andthe USA, and intra-European flights through the Euro One regional network.
