sky

KLM will face a 4-hour strike at Amsterdam Schiphol after negotiations over a salary increase for ground staff broke down, the FNV union said. “KLM continues to refuse to come to a good collective labour agreement for ground staff. They leave their own employees in the cold,” FNV union leader Jan van den Brink said. The scheduled strike at KLM follows 2 walkouts that disrupted hundreds of flights. The date of the planned strike hasn’t been set and will be announced at least 48 hours in advance, the union said. Months of talks between the union and management over a new labour agreement have failed to produce a deal. KLM’s 15,000 ground staff are seeking a 4% pay increase, more fixed contracts and more favourable shift patterns, FNV said. <br/>

A manager at a Chicago travel agency has been charged with "illegally reaping" more than 42m Delta Air Lines miles worth more than US$1.75m by registering customers as employees on the airline's business rewards program. The US Justice Department said Friday that Gennady Podolsky, a managing partner and travel agent at Vega International Travel Services Inc, was charged with 12 counts of wire fraud Wednesday. An attorney representing Podolsky said his client's conduct with Delta's loyalty program was "not fraudulent" and that allegations that the conduct was illegal are "simply wrong." Podolsky registered clients as employees on Delta's SkyBonus program, which provides rewards to businesses when their employees travel, to earn miles off the flights he booked for them, the Justice Department statement said. <br/>