Union demands for state intervention to save Air France were rejected yesterday amid anger over the assault on senior executives by protesting employees.
The attack saw the shirts ripped off human resources chief, Xavier Broseta, and another senior manager after a works council meeting near Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday. Pictures of the fleeing executives made news around the world.
Separate unions representing pilots, cabin and ground crew called on the state to follow French tradition and step in to resolve the conflict sparked by plans to cut almost 3,000 jobs.
Ministers dismissed the calls, noting that the airline was now only 17% owned by the state, the Times reported.
“The state is a shareholder but we are not in a situation today where the solution will be nationalisation of Air France. The answer is no,” the French transport minister, Alain Vidalies, said. “We are not in North Korea.”
Vidalies voiced the government’s fears that foreigners could buy up the carrier, falling far behind the competition from British Airways-Iberia and Lufthansa as well as budget airlines.
“Its market value has shrunk to €2 billion from €7 billion, so it’s a company that is fragile,” he said. “The best French response would be to convey to those abroad who see a caricature, that these events are not France, and that we can get back on track by talking.”
Commenting on the images of the fleeting executives, French prime minister Manuel Valls said: “This image hurts our country.”
He called the angry employees “thugs” as he visited the airline’s headquarters.
“Air France is in shock and when Air France is in shock, all of France is in shock,” he added, flanked by the airline’s top management.
“When you physically attack people, when you try to humiliate them in a crowd, that has nothing to do with the trouble a company is in.”
The fate of the national carrier was at stake, he said, appealing directly to pilots union to accept sacrifices.
“It would be a tragedy for our country if a business so symbolic were to find itself in trouble because a minority refuses to adapt to a changing world,” he said.
French president Francois Hollande condemned the violence as unacceptable and said: “You can see the consequences that can have to the image, the attractiveness of France.”