What do 100 airline staff do when thousands of layoffs are announced? Some strike with signs, some accept the change and others storm into an executive meeting and tear into management, literally.
At Air France around 100 workers decided to choose the most violent option and took demonstrations to an all new level over the weekend by storming into an executives meeting and ripping the shirts right off managements’ backs.
But it didn’t stop there, photos of executives being led by guards through an angry swarm, show one had been stripped of his shirt and suit jacket and forced to walk through the mod half naked.
That’s the HR boss of Air France, escaping thuggish trade union mob, shirtless. #France2015 http://t.co/U8pUIELYtU pic.twitter.com/BqiKLd3YW5
— Stanley Pignal (@spignal) October 5, 2015
The outbreak described by France’s union leaders as ‘unacceptable’ came after the airline announced 2,900 job cuts, The Guardian reported.
The restructure plan is designed to bring the loss-making airline back into the black and would involve thousands of redundancies from now until 2017.
Jobs losses will include 1,700 ground staff, 900 cabin crew and 300 pilots.
Despite the large number of employment losses, French union leaders say while they understand workers’ frustrations, the behaviour of the 100 workers was ‘undignified’.
“One can fight management without being violent.”
Laurent Berger, CFDT Secretary General
Amazing scenes as shirtless execs flee angry mob at Air France board meeting on job cuts: http://t.co/e0XdfcqOSw pic.twitter.com/dr8wyLJPqX
— The Local Europe (@TheLocalEurope) October 5, 2015
France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls offered airline executives his ‘full support’ and said the group’s behaviour was scandalising.
Since, Air France has lodged an official police complaint for ‘aggravated violence’.
This isn’t the first time Air France has dealt with violent behaviour during employee strikers, in 2009 several bosses were held hostage by angry staff. Again in 2014 two managers were prevented from leaving the Goodyear factory in northern France.
