Air Tahiti strike hurting tourism

FRENCH POLYNESIA – A strike at Air Tahiti strike has spread to other companies in French Polynesia, further disrupting air travel in French Polynesia.

The Air Tahiti strike was triggered over possible job losses and pay cuts in response to a sharp drop in domestic air travel. Staff don’t want to accept pay cuts and want to be paid full time – even if they’re only able to work part time.

Flights have been cut for two weeks now as more employees of related industries have joined the strike.

The president, Edouard Fritch, has appealed to the parties concerned to settle their dispute because of the strike’s impact on the territory, including the tourism industry.

Publisher of Tahiti Pacifique magazine Alex du Prel claims the unions are causing the stoppages to show the power they have on the economy.

He says employment rates are low at the moment and tourism is heavily relied on to create jobs.

“It is having quite some effect on tourism as everybody flies to Tahiti and then they fly on to Bora Bora, Rangiroa, Marquesas – so when you block the centre, you block everything.

“It’s very apparent what the unions are doing – they’re expanding and trying to sabotage the economy.”

“We are in a dire crisis in French Polynesia, we have a very large part of the population unemployed. We have the people who have the chance to have employment strike – so you know, it’s more a union thing, a power play between the union and the government.

“It has quite some effect on tourism I don’t think it’s going to do much good,” he said.

“If you’re a tourist in a fancy hotel on the outer islands and you have to get back to Tahiti to catch your flight back home, you’re going to get furious. So it’s a problem.”

- PNC sources