KLM makes wages proposals after ground crews threaten to strike

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -KLM has made wage proposals to staff of the Dutch arm of airline group Air France KLM, it said on Wednesday, after the CNV union said the company's ground crews would go on strike at Amsterdam airport on July 9 unless their demands were met.

School holidays begin next week in parts of the Netherlands meaning the planned eight-hour strike would take place at a very busy time.

"Today KLM made a concrete wage proposal to all unions: a one-off payment of 1,000 euros ($1,178.60) in 2025 and an up to 2.5% structural increase by July 2026, depending on the operating result for 2025," the company said in a statement.

"KLM believes this offer provides enough starting points to reach an agreement with all unions. The wage negotiations will continue on 10 July," it added.

Contacted by Reuters, the leader of the CNV union did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the proposals.

Before this wage announcement but after the unions mentioned a strike, KLM had said it would consider asking a court to ban the planned industrial action, as it successfully did last month.

CNV said it was confident a strike would not be banned this time, as it said the circumstances had changed.

The court ruling in June cited security concerns at the airport related to the summit of NATO leaders that would be held in The Hague in the days prior to the announced strike.

($1 = 0.8485 euros)

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Gianluca Lo Nostro and Benoit Van Overstraeten, Editing by Louise Heavens and Barbara Lewis)