Air France Staff Pepper Sprayed During Strike

The Air France strike that disrupted roughly half of the airline’s long-haul flights took an unfortunate turn at Charles de Gaulle airport.

This morning, hundreds of Air France staff gathered to demonstrate at the airport. When roughly 50 employees broke past police lines and “tried to storm a terminal,” they were met with pepper spray via French riot police.

The goal of their day-long strike is to pressure management to increase salaries by 6 percent.

“We’ve been making an effort since 2011 and gotten a 30 percent rise in productivity and no increase in salary,” said National Air France Group union chief Patrick Henry-Haye.

“Last year, our top managers raised their salaries by 67 percent. Us: zero percent,” he said.

For more on this story, go to The Miami Herald.