Christmas has arrived early for unions as the rattling of chains gets Scrooge to see the errors of his ways
CHRISTMAS seems to have come early for the trade union movement after Michael O’Leary caved in and agreed to talks to stop his rebel pilots grounding flights.
It looks as if he means to end the budget airline’s long-standing policy of not recognising unions to avoid strikes that would cause him more than a few problems over the festive season.
Right up to his announcement, insiders who have been following this spat closely were predicting he would go to the ends of the earth to prevent Wednesday’s strike and earlier ones across Europe. There was talk of court injunctions and bringing in ‘strike-breakers’. Nobody expected him to capitulate.
The long-running animosity between Mr O’Leary and unions means this announcement looks too good to be true. They think he may be pulling a fast one to ensure that next week’s strikes are called off.
But if Mr O’Leary has had a change of heart, it’s an embarrassing climbdown for the colourful, entertaining loudmouth who once said he would rather cut off his hands than deal with unions.
Just last year, he was giving Fine Gael politicians a laugh at a fundraiser by describing RTÉ as a “ratinfested North Korean union shop” and said striking gardaí should be sacked.
Online, some Twitter users reacted to the news by comparing him with Scrooge and marvelled at the miracle that made him see the error of his ways. The ghost of Christmas past in the shape of the head of Ialpa, Evan Cullen, may have rattled his chains.
In a masterpiece of
understatement announcing the move yesterday morning, Ryanair said recognising unions would be a “significant” change as part of its Always Getting Better customer improvement programme.
But it could turn out to be a landmark day for industrial relations.
Even employer body Ibec described it as “seismic”.
Ryanair’s approach to its workers’ terms and conditions is as pared down as its approach to providing basics like toilet paper onboard flights. It won a landmark case seven years ago when the Supreme Court backed its refusal to engage with the Labour Court in a dispute with pilots because it
‘The long-running animosity between Mr O’Leary and unions means this announcement looks too good to be true’
had its own employee representative committees.
This created the possibility that employers could create in-house union equivalents. If unions get a foothold, it will mean higher costs for Ryanair as pilots demand the same market rates and terms and conditions as their competitors. Employee pilots have better conditions than contractors and a pension scheme, but are still far behind their peers at EasyJet, to say nothing of pilots at legacy airlines like Lufthansa or KLM/Air France.
It will only be a matter of time before cabin crew and baggage handlers follow suit. This would upset the whole apple cart and ultimately, the cost of flights.