The French pilots' union SNPL called a one-day strike against easyJet for Monday, accusing the British budget airline of not adequately sharing with employees record profits it announced earlier in the week. Ninety percent of easyJet pilots in France belong to SNPL and easyJet operates out of 16 French airports.
EasyJet, Europe's second-largest low-cost carrier after Ryanair Holdings Plc, announced on Tuesday that pretax profit rose 51 percent in the financial year ended September. It said it would pay a 175 million pound ($282 million) special dividend to shareholders. Shares of easyJet have doubled over the last year.
In a statement issued the same day, SNPL said its pilots would receive "no profit-sharing agreement, no company share plan, no improved working conditions", and warned of protest walkouts in coming months. "The breaking point has been reached, and pilots are tired," the statement said. "While the management is happily sharing millions between them, employees are totally forgotten and left to struggle in a fight to the social bottom."
SNPL spokesman Didier Bourguignon said easyJet was likely to replace strikers with pilots based in other countries, as it did during the last French strike in August 2012, which resulted in minimal disruption. EasyJet was not immediately reachable for comment.