Pilot’s union VNV does not want to let KLM go bankrupt but was also not prepared to sign a blank check. This is what chairman Willem Schmid of the union said in the Radio 1 Journal. “We want to have clarity about what we are signing for.”
On Friday, KLM wanted to insist on the insistence of Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra that the unions promised to keep to the wage sacrifices after 2022, the period for which agreements were made, until the end of the term of the government support package in 2025.
“We have an agreement on cutbacks for roughly two years, and that has been an agreement for the past four weeks,” Schmid explains. On Friday, KLM asked the unions to sign for the terms of the loan the airline will receive from the government.
“That is a contract of which the term is unclear and the content secret. And with that, they were asked to sign for a blank check. Then this is not stubbornness, but trying to clarify what we are signing for.”
According to the VNV leader, an agreement for wage moderation until 2025 would have been possible. “But we do want to know how or what.” Schmid accuses KLM of having left the case too long.
“KLM must ensure that the agreements are in line with the agreements with the government. If, after concluding an agreement, you are suddenly asked to sign for that blank check with a deadline of sixteen hours, then that will not work.”