Air France unions announce 4 more strike days in April

Trade unions at Air France announced 4 more days of strikes at the end of April after walking out of talks Wednesday. The 10 unions have already staged strikes on 4 days in February and March and had already announced they would stop work on 7, 10 and 11 April. Wednesday, after just 45 minutes of talks with management, they said they would stage a further strike on 17-18 April and 23-24 April in pursuit of their demand for a 6% pay rise. Rail workers will also be on strike the 18, 23 and 24 April. Management had made "no realistic proposals", the unions said, claiming the strikes had already cost the company E100m. The airline says the first day caused the loss of E26m and claimed that accepting the union's demand would cancel out the savings made by a cost-cutting programme that began in 2011. <br/>