RYANAIR CHIEF IN VOW TO ‘FACE DOWN’ PILOTS
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TRAVEL chaos looms as Ryanair plans to “face down” striking pilots making it almost certain Thursday’s industrial action will go ahead.
The threatened strike has been described as “blackmail” in an internal memo from the airline.
The letter to staff which was written by Ryanair’s chief people officer Eddie Wilson said only 27% of its 350 Irishbased pilots support the strike and it has “no democratic mandate whatsoever”.
Last week, the carrier’s pilots were balloted by the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association and voted to strike in their ongoing dispute over terms and conditions with a 24-hour work stoppage planned. The memo, which was seen by RTE, showed Mr Wilson saying that IALPA’S parent union Forsa “have refused 20 separate invitations to meet us here at our Airside offices (which is where all other meetings with our people and their unions have taken place)”.
The memo stated if the union does not meet with the airline tomorrow, Tuesday or Wednesday, then “it’s likely some disruption will occur next Thursday”.
It said unless such a meeting takes place, the airline will issue an update notice to passengers on Tuesday, advising them of plans to minimise the disruption caused by the stoppage. Ryanair has already been hit by air traffic control strikes in Europe that left more than 210,000 passengers facing flight cancellations last month.
It said more than 1,100 flights were axed for the second month running due to air traffic control strikes over four weekends in June, as well as staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France.
Responding to the internal memo, a Forsa spokesman said: “The language is unhelpful, and in the context of an industrial dispute, is likely to push the parties
further apart.”