Dutch Airline KLM Secures Injunction To Stop Massive Ground Staff Strike At Its Amsterdam Hub
- Unions warned the judge that disgruntled ground staff might take unauthorized 'wildcat' strike action if the court does not allow an official walkout to go ahead as planned.
Dutch flag carrier KLM has secured an emergency court injunction blocking thousands of ground staff at its hub at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport from going on strike next Wednesday in a dispute over wages.
Two labor unions, FNV and CNV, had called on their members to go on strike for eight hours on July 9 from 2 pm to 10 pm after they rejected a pay offer from KLM, because it didn’t guarantee that wages would keep up with inflation.
Following weeks of talks, KLM offered ground staff a one-off payment of €1,000 and a 2.5% pay rise, which would only take effect in July 2026. The FNV union slammed the proposal as “insufficient.”
Walter van der Vlies, a veteran KLM employee who has worked for the airline at Amsterdam Schiphol for 37 years, said KLM has lost sight of the fact that ground staff were an essential part of the carrier’s operations.
“As soon as the management meets our minimum requirements, we will be back at the table,” Vlies said in the hours before the two sides went to court in Amsterdam.
Lawyers representing KLM successfully argued that the eight-hour stoppage would bring with it unacceptable safety concerns and would have a knock-on effect on other airlines that have nothing to do with the wage dispute.
The judge did not rule out the possibility of ground staff going on strike, but suggested any walkout would have to be on a much smaller scale.
The unions warned the court that ground staff might decide to carry out a so-called ‘wildcat’ strike in which workers walk out without any instruction from their unions.
The CNV union had sounded optimistic ahead of the court battle that the judge would allow the strike to go ahead after the unions worked on a plan to address KLM’s safety concerns.
A court had previously blocked a longer 24-hour strike that would have taken place at the end of June.
KLM says it has sent an improved pay offer to both unions and wants negotiations to resume as quickly as possible.
