RYANAIR CANCELS TALKS AMID FRESH STRIKES
RYANAIR has blasted pilot union Fórsa for its ‘irresponsible’ decision to stage a fifth day of strike action next week.
The airline cancelled ‘pointless’ talks set for next Tuesday in protest at the additional strike.
The announcement comes as Irish-based pilots staged another day of industrial action today, marking their fourth 24-hour stoppage since July 12.
Around 3,500 passengers would be grounded by next week’s planned strike, but Ryanair has not yet worked out which routes will be affected.
This week, the budget airline sent a letter to Fórsa, which represents Escalation: Michael O’Leary the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, offering to meet for talks next Tuesday on condition that no further strike action is called prior to the meeting. However, the union reacted by announcing the upcoming stoppage, adding that further industrial action is likely.
In a statement yesterday, Fórsa said that for a month the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots’ ‘reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters.
‘In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Fórsa’s repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time,’ it said.
It added that it has told Ryanair that union representatives are available for talks, but added that a resolution to the spat will not be reached as long as it continues to set preconditions to talks.
The dispute began when Irish pilots sought improved conditions, including a roll-out of a ‘seniority list’ to determine who gets promotions, holidays and base transfers.
It escalated significantly last week when the airline threatened to cut up to 300 Irish-based jobs if strikes continued, which the union said has led to a ‘predictable hardening of resolve’ among pilots.
Reacting to the announcement of a fifth day of stoppages, Ryanair accused Fórsa of calling ‘unnecessary strikes to disrupt Irish customers during the peak travel period’.
The airline said in a statement yesterday that the strike notice is ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unwarranted’, and that the union has ‘showed no interest in negotiating with Ryanair’.
It added that it would be ‘pointless’ to go through with proposed talks next Tuesday with a strike planned for later that week.
‘Fórsa has called for meetings with Ryanair, yet during each of the last weeks when Ryanair has invited Fórsa to meet, Fórsa has rejected these invitations and instead called a fourth strike [today, August 3], and now a fifth strike [August 10] by just 25% of Irish pilots,’ the airline’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs said.
‘Fórsa have refused not one, but two invitations to meet with Ryanair to resolve this dispute.’
Ryanair pilots in Sweden and Belgium are also set to go on strike next Friday.