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Ryanair’s Irish pilots set fifth strike date
Ryanair pilots in Ireland have set the date for a fifth strike next Friday.
It comes as pilots stage a walk-out today (Friday August 3).
Union Forsa said pilots have strengthened their resolve after Ryanair threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland.
It claims that in the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, Ryanair’s management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsa’s repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time.
"There cannot be a resolution to this dispute if management persists with its precondition to talks, which is virtually unprecedented in similar situations across Irish industrial relations," said a statement.
"On a number of occasions in recent weeks and months, there have been suggestions that third-party facilitation could assist in reaching consensus on issues of disagreement. Forsa has today repeated to the company that it is willing to explore this option."
Ryanair responded saying it has already agreed to nine of the union’s 11 demands and that it has repeatedly invited Forsa and its Pilot Committee to meet for talks but the union has not accepted.
Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs called the fifth strike notice ‘irresponsible and unwarranted’.
"In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute," he said.
"In this case, after four days of unsuccessful strikes, a handful of Aer Lingus pilots are working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, and Germany to further disrupt Ryanair’s business and Ryanair’s customers next Friday August 10.
"Forsa should now explain why they repeatedly called for meetings, and yet when Ryanair went to two meetings, no progress has been made because the Pilots Committee and Forsa spent the majority of the time outside the room consulting with Aer Lingus pilots."
He said an offer to meet next Tuesday was now ‘pointless’ so it will notify another 3,500 Irish passengers of 20 further flight cancellations.
"Forsa must remove Aer Lingus pilots from this process since they are intent on damaging Ryanair’s business for the benefit of Aer Lingus," added Jacobs.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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