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楼主 / sspassp
- 时间: 2017-12-04 20:26Three years after the airline Air Afrique went bankrupt, over 1,000 workers in Ivory Coast are still waiting for compensation. Union leaders say Air France, a share holder in the defunct airline, has reneged on its promise to give Air Afrique's worker's compensation. Union members have been holding protests outside Air France's offices.
Former Air Afrique employees and family members banged drums and cans in a recent protest outside Air France's Abidjan offices. Some also sang chants saying Air France had tricked them. The now bankrupt Air Afrique had employed over 4,000 workers from 11 countries in Africa.
Union members from Air Afrique's headquarters in Abidjan say Air France, which agreed on a bailout package for the bankrupt airline, owes them around $10 million in compensation. They are also demanding back pay; they say they were not paid any salary in the 10 months before Air Afrique filed for bankruptcy.
One of the protesters, Bernadette Coly from Senegal, told VOA that she blames her husband's death two years ago on the lack of compensation. He was an accountant for Air Afrique, but he became sick and he had no money to pay for treatment.
Ms. Coly described how she could not afford to buy medicine for her husband. She says that she cannot get a job, and she and her four children are being forced to leave their home because she can no longer pay rent.
Not all responsibility for providing compensation falls on Air France, which owned just under 11 percent of shares in Air Afrique. Eleven African countries owned 66 percent of shares in the bankrupt airline.
In 2001, as part of its bailout package for Air Afrique employees, Air France agreed to create a new airline called Nouvelle Air Afrique, but this company has not yet been created.
In letters to the Air Afrique's trade union, Air France's lawyer in Ivory Coast, Jean Francois Chauveau, says Air France takes the position that it cannot pay out compensation until the new airline is created.
The head of Air Afrique's union in Ivory Coast, Denis Attiba, says all the companies involved in the creation of Air Afrique must carry out their commitments to those who worked for the company. In addition, Mr. Attiba says the head of the Central West African Bank, Charles Konan Bali, who has been given the responsibility for setting up the new airline, must fulfil his obligations.
"Those responsibilities are shared," he said. "There is part of the same thing from the head of states. Part of the responsibilities for the partner Air France, and the responsibility for the building of the new company, that is the full responsibility of the central bank governor."
Mr. Attiba says the former Air Afrique employees are desperate to get compensation from anyone. From earning good salaries, most of the workers are now living in absolute poverty, and many cannot afford to send their children to school. He blames the failure of Air Afrique on mismanagement and corruption. The airline was created on the basis that many small African countries cannot afford their own national airline.非洲航空公司破产三年后，象牙海岸的1000多名工人仍在等待赔偿。工会领导人表示，法航，这家已经停航的航空公司的股东，已经违背了承诺给予Afrique航空公司工人赔偿的承诺。工会成员一直在法航办公室外举行抗议活动。
前南非航空公司的员工和家属在法航阿比让办公室外最近的一次抗议活动中，敲打了鼓和罐头。有些人还唱歌说法航欺骗了他们。现在破产的非洲航空公司雇用了来自非洲11个国家的4000多名工人。
非洲航空总部设在阿比让的工会成员说，同意为这家破产航空公司提供救助方案的法国航空公司，欠他们约1000万美元的赔偿金。他们也要求退还工资;他们说，在非洲航空申请破产之前的10个月内，他们没有获得任何工资。
其中一名示威者，来自塞内加尔的Bernadette Coly告诉美国之音记者，两年前她因为缺乏赔偿而指责丈夫死亡。他是非洲航空公司的会计师，但他病了，没有钱支付治疗费用。
柯丽女士描述了她如何买不起丈夫的药。她说她找不到工作，她和她的四个孩子因为不能再付房租而被迫离开家。
并非所有提供赔偿的责任都在法航，后者拥有不到11％的非洲航空股份。十一个非洲国家拥有破产航空公司66％的股份。
2001年，作为非洲航空员工救助计划的一部分，法国航空公司同意创建一家名为Nouvelle Air Afrique的新航空公司，但该公司尚未成立。
法航在象牙海岸的律师让·弗朗索瓦·肖沃（Jean Francois Chauauau）在致非洲航空工会的信中表示，法航认为，在新航空公司成立之前，无法支付赔偿金。
非洲航空在象牙海岸工会的负责人丹尼斯·阿蒂巴（Denis Attiba）表示，所有参与创建非洲航空公司的公司都必须履行对在公司工作的人的承诺。此外，Attiba先生说，负责设立新航空公司的中央西非银行行长查尔斯·科南巴厘岛的负责人必须履行其义务。
他说：“这些责任是分享的。 “国家元首也有同样的事情，合伙人法航的部分职责，以及新公司建设的责任，这是央行行长的全部责任。”
Attiba先生说前Afrique非洲雇员绝望得到任何人的赔偿。由于赚得高薪，现在大部分工人生活在绝对贫困之中，许多人不能送子女上学。他指责非洲航空公司管理不善和腐败的失败。这个航空公司的创立是因为很多非洲小国都买不起自己的国家航空公司。 -
Former Air Afrique Workers Demand Compensation
