More misery for holidaymakers as Ryanair cabin crew plan strike
■ Unions say they’ve ‘no other choice but to call for 24-hour action’ in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium
HOLIDAYMAKERS could be in for more misery this month following a planned Ryanair pilot strike, with some of its cabin crew members in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium now set to strike near the end of the month.
Unions in the four countries confirmed yesterday they have called for 24-hour national strikes of unionised Ryanair cabin crew on July 25.
A spokesman for Italian union Uiltrasporti told the Irish Independent he expected between 1,000 and 1,500 Ryanair cabin crew to go on strike. The airline has more than 8,000 such staff.
The strike action will continue for another 24 hours on July 26 in Portugal, Spain and Belgium – just as the summer holiday season is in full swing.
The strikes could hit passengers all over Europe who are planning on travelling to and from those countries on the days when the action is due to take place.
Spain and Italy are two of Ryanair’s biggest markets.
The planned strikes come after Ryanair pilots based in Ireland, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), also voted in favour of industrial action. They are set to strike next Thursday for 24 hours in a dispute over terms and conditions. The action could hit dozens of flights out of Dublin alone that day, affecting thousands of flyers.
The cabin crew union said that following a meeting on April 24 in Lisbon, it had given Ryanair until June 30 to comply with a list of demands.
It wants cabin crew at the airline to be subject to local employment law in the country where they’re based, rather than Irish employment legislation. Ryanair has previously insisted that it “fully complies” with all European Union employment laws.
The Italian, Spanish, Belgian and Portuguese unions have also called on Ryanair to initiate negotiations with them, “without imposing restrictions”.
“Regretfully, Ryanair chose to continue to ignore its workforce and gave these unions no other choice but to call for 24-hour national strike action,” according to a joint statement from the cabin crew unions SNPVAC in Portugal, Uiltrasporti in Italy, SITCPLA and USO in Spain, and CNE-LBC in Belgium.
They added: “Further industrial actions may follow in the upcoming weeks if Ryanair continues with this deadlock.”
The unions also want cabin crew to have the same terms and conditions whether they are directly employed by the airline or work for Ryanair via a contracting firm. Ryanair said union demands made this week for cabin crew were “pointless” and claimed its cabin crew can earn as much as €40,000 a year.
Meanwhile, Fórsa has claimed that there is “no evidence whatsoever” that Ryanair wants to engage in meaningful talks regarding the issues raised by its staff pilots in Ireland who are planning to strike.
But Ryanair insisted in a letter yesterday that the planned July 12 strike by pilots is “unnecessary” and that the airline has already sent Fórsa proposals to address all the issues raised.
The airline’s chief people officer, Eddie Wilson, told Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk in a letter yesterday that the airline is willing to meet on the mornings of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week, but at the Ryanair headquarters rather than a neutral venue. He called on the union to postpone or withdraw the strike threat.