Ryanair release strong statement blaming “handful” of Aer Lingus pilots for strikes

No holding back...

Ryanair has condemned Fórsa for calling a fifth day of strike action on Friday 10 August. The strikes will coincide with stoppages by colleagues in Sweden and Belgium who announced their plans to strike on Wednesday. In a statement Ryanair said: "This 5^th unnecessary strike proves that FORSA have no interest in meeting Ryanair. Even at the 2 meetings already held (over 9 hours) they showed no interest in negotiating with Ryanair. The gap between the sides is narrow given that Ryanair has already agreed to 9 of FORSA’s 11 requirements, and yet FORSA keep calling unnecessary strikes, to disrupt Irish customers during the peak travel period. "Ryanair believes that this is because FORSA are not in control of the process, it is being driven by a tiny handful of Aer Lingus pilots who are now working with other pilot unions across Europe to co-ordinate a day of disruption on Fri 10^th Aug next. "Ryanair again calls on FORSA to remove these Aer Lingus pilots from the process since they have no interest in meeting or resolving this dispute, they just want to damage Ryanair’s business and our share price for the benefit of Aer Lingus." https://twitter.com/Ryanair/status/1025036005626314754 Fórsa announced the intention of their members to take industrial action in a statement on Thursday. "For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots’ reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters," pilots' union Fórsa said in the statement. "In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Fórsa’s repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks. "The airline’s escalation of the dispute last Wednesday (25 July) – when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland – led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff."