Shirt-Ripping Air France Workers Tear Up Another CEO in Conflict

For a brief moment these past weeks, it appeared that France’s once-mighty unions had lost their clout. Rail workers, once synonymous with crippling strikes, staged a walkout that went largely unnoticed as travelers shrugged, turning to buses and ride-sharing instead. But over at Air France, that well-oiled worker conflict played out in a decidedly more retro fashion.

Late on Friday, a visibly shaken Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Janaillac threw in the towel, resigning from a post he held for less than two years after failing to win backing from employees for his pay proposals. Calling the labor conflict a “huge waste,” the CEO said the only beneficiaries are rivals that have managed to move beyond the endless cycle of strikes that have dominated the European aviation industry in recent years.