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French air traffic controllers call for strike

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
French air traffic controllers call for strike
France looks set to see more empty airports next month. Photo: AFP

Air traffic controllers announced on Tuesday that they will hold a two-day strike early next month to protest their wages.

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It's not exactly the news that travellers in France want to hear.
 
Just as striking French sailors caused cross-Channel travel chaos around Calais, unions representing the country's air traffic controllers have called for a strike on July 2nd and 3rd.
 
Two unions announced on Tuesday that the workers were fed up with their salaries and the lack of resources pumped into their industry, reported French newspaper Le Parisien.
 
France's main air traffic union SNCTA announced that it wants fresh talks over the working conditions of its members.
 
A particular bone of contention is the pushing back of the retirement age for air traffic controllers from 57 to 59.
 
It announced that there are 700 workers in the industry born between the years of 1959 and 1964 who don't know when they will reture. 
 
Promises of negotiations have not materialized, a spokesman told the paper. 
 
Air traffic controllers have had long-running disputes over everything from pensions to workloads. The SNCTA union is the biggest in the industry, and has 41 percent of France's 4,000 air traffic controllers as members.
 
The last time air traffic controllers held strikes in France, up to 53 percent of flights were cancelled over a two-day period in mid-April.
 

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