Ryanair cabin crew confirm 24-hour European strike

Kate Demolder

The strike action will affect two dates in late July.

Ryanair cabin crew in four countries have confirmed that they will join their colleagues in strike action in the middle of July.

Cabin crews in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Belgium will stage a 24-hour strike on 25 July and a 24-hour strike in Portugal, Spain and Belgium on 26 July.

Rumours were rife that cabin crews across Europe were set to engage in industrial action in solidarity with their colleagues on Thursday.

This came just a day after almost 100 of the airline’s Dublin-based pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

It is believed that the pilots, who are directly employed by the airline, voted for strike action following a dispute over management’s approach to transferring pilots between its European and African bases.

Strike action will commence for a period of 24 hours next week, beginning at 01:00 on Thursday 12 July.

Fórsa, an Irish trade union for Public Service staff, posted an article to their website on Wednesday morning claiming that they “have seen no evidence whatsoever on the part of Ryanair management to engage in meaningful negotiations with a view to reaching agreement on the issues they have presented to the company.

It is yet another example of a Ryanair view which is “it’s either our way or no way.

According to its latest post, the union claims that it has outlined its previous attempts to engage with the company to negotiate and agree a seniority system and associated agreements.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), a union body that represents crew at the vast majority of Ryanair’s bases, on Wednesday kick-started a campaign to come to the aid of Ryanair’s cabin crew.

The umbrella group listed demands after the summit ranging from improvements to economic conditions to safety and rostering and workplace culture.

Ryanair took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to call on FORSA to call off the strike.