No-frills tactics come back to bite

MICHAEL O’Leary famously said he’d rather cut off his hands than deal with unions. But now he has reluctantly allowed them to represent his staf f, he is facing the severe pain of a union open season in the middle of Ryanair’s peak summer trade.

Of course, he was never naive enough to think that recognising unions was going to be the end of the matter when he offered the dramatic olive branch before Christmas and unsettled the foundation of the low-cost carrier’s business model.

The management strateg y since then seems to have been to appear to be conciliator y and not to reject any thing, but not to agree to much at the same time. The result has kept down costs but also lef t a hotchpotch of unfinished talks with unions on recognition agreements and demands for better conditions across its bases.

This week, rebel pilots based in Dublin decided they’d had enough and got a useful ballot result into their back pockets.

Cabin crew look set to follow suit and have warned that ground crew could join the skirmish.

Ryanair is playing down the threat of next week’s strike by saying it will only affect 7pc of customers. This may stoke up already enraged passengers who would be affected, but it doesn’t paint a full picture of the woes facing the airline. The no-frills approach it has doled out to its staff as much as customers over the years is coming back to bite. Disgruntled crew who, according to some reports, were forced to pay for their own bottled water and coffee on f lights are meeting in Dublin for a second day today to draw up a ‘charter of demands’.

German pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit is balloting its Ryanair members over “prolonged strike action”.

Some sources claimed management is deeply divided with some recommending sof tly-sof tly tactics and others – including Mr O’Leary apparently – clinging to their traditional bullish approach. He has threatened to take f lights and shif t jobs and planes to other jurisdictions if unions’ demands are unreasonable.

Many holidaymakers’ travel plans will hang in the balance as we wait to see who wins out ahead of next week’s strike.