Strike forces KLM to cut 119 flights on Wednesday morning, and reschedule dozens more

Dutch airline KLM said it will again be forced to cancel dozens of flights on Wednesday morning due to a strike by ground crew workers. This time, 119 flights are affected, an airline spokesperson confirmed. It is not yet known how many passengers will be affected by the flight schedule adjustments.

The vast majority of these flights are to European destinations. The spokesperson also said that 70 flights will have a different departure time later in the day. The strike has the potential to affect many passengers traveling to or from Schiphol Airport, including people changing planes at the airport outside Amsterdam, KLM wrote on its website.

The FNV and CNV labor unions have announced a work stoppage from 6 a.m. to noon, because they are angry that KLM has yet to conclude a deal for ground staff, despite reaching collectively-bargained deals with three other unions. FNV accused the airline of bitterly trying to divide groups of workers during the negotiations regardless of the long-term impact.

"KLM management is pitting groups of employees against each other. Pilots are getting paid extra, at the expense of ground crew. We won't let this get us down," said FNV Aviation Director John van Dorland in a statement earlier this month.

The planned six-hour strike is the third consecutive Wednesday that ground crew have walked out. These also led to the cancellation of numerous flights, with thousands of passengers affected.

An eight-hour strike on Oct. 1 is expected to begin at 6 a.m. if a deal is not reached. A four-hour strike took place on Sept. 17, and a shorter labor action happened a week earlier.

The ground crew includes workers who load and unload luggage, provide passenger assistance, and tow aircraft. "We're tired of being treated like second-class employees. It's time for management to do something for us," said three representatives of the workers responsible for the towing service.