We write this for KLM employees (CLA ground) that love what they do and want to keep working for KLM. With your help, we want to create a sustainable and modern set of labor agreements that helps us through the current crisis and beyond. We want to unify KLM and her employees in a sustainable way and come to progressive solutions together. Solutions that lead to continuity of our business, solutions that prepare us for the future.  

The Corona crisis has hit us all on a professional and sometimes personal level. We realize that the company is going through one of its most difficult times in history. During the last few months, we have all put our best efforts into helping where we could. We got used to the new normal, and now it is time to restructure, regroup and look ahead. The outlook for the air transport industry is grim with IATA predicting a passenger recovery to only 70% in 2021 compared to 2019 passenger levels. Key is to use a positive mindset and think together with KLM how to face the challenges ahead as best as we can. 

We strive for flexible labor agreements and rostering that empower individuals to take control over their own labor conditions. There is not one solution that fits all: people have their own story and personal wishes. Empowerment of all individuals working for KLM is one of our most important focus pillars. If it comes to benefit reductions, we want to choose our own individual way of doing this. We propose a reversed cafetariaregeling, letting employees choose between cutting wages, giving up extra-legal holidays, cutting DI-budget or other secondary benefits.  

We propose to offer the opportunity to work a 32 or 36-hour workweek to all employees. By doing so, a reduction of FTE can be reached on a voluntary basis and employees could choose to use this crisis as an opportunity to work on self-development, focus on their family, start their own company; or anything else that fits their needs.

We expect a substantial leave of (young) talents when KLM does not consider their needs in the upcoming restructuring period. Only 22% of the (ground) workforce is under 40 years old and we fear for the continuity of the company if this ratio goes down. We would like KLM to give a career perspective and increase the incentive to help KLM go through this crisis. Wages in several domains are currently not competitive and this will not improve on the short term with the outlook on benefit reductions. We want to reverse the decision to decouple assessment and salary. In that way employees that are not at the maximum of their salary can be triggered to go the extra mile in the upcoming period, because performance is directly related to salary growth. 

We believe that the future is sustainable and green. Being a socially responsible airline is not only ethically just, but also key to survive in the future and to be seen as an attractive employer. We expect KLM to work on being the most sustainable airline in the world, and do more than the government funding demands. It is key to survive as a company in the long run and therefore for survive another 100 years. We need to work on the environmental footprint of both individuals as well as the company as a whole. To start small, we want to encourage working from home on a regular basis and stimulating commuting by bike or public transport when employees need to work on a KLM location. In the big picture we expect KLM to keep investing in R&D, even during financially difficult times, to significantly decrease the environmental footprint of the entire company in the long run. 

We believe in the importance of diversity and inclusion within KLM. That is why everyone’s voice should be heard when labor agreements are formulated. We will provide a platform where we invite every KLM employee to cast their opinion, whether you are a member of UnifiedKLM or not. On this platform we will collect input from employees before a new set of labor agreements is proposed, by organizing votings on relevant topics. This way, we want to work together with KLM on making realistic proposals, preferably leading to a short period of discussions, as well as offer employees transparency in how decisions around labor agreements are made.  

We believe a union is for everyone, therefore you do not need to be a member to have a voice, however we need enough members to be recognized by KLM and make a change. Help us get the numbers we need and be an active part of the new way of working.