Ryanair urges cabin crew to come to the table over planned strike
Ryanair has called on trade union Fórsa to engage with it to avoid air cabin crew joining pilots' proposed industrial action next week.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which represents crew at 86 of the budget airline's bases, and Fórsa yesterday voted for a day of strike action on Thursday (12 July), unless the employer meets a set of demands relating to pay, culture and rostering.
The planned action comes shortly after 100 pilots at Ryanair's Dublin base also agreed on strike action on 12 July.
Read more: Ryanair hits out over strikes causing 1,100 flight cancellations in June
However, Ryanair responded yesterday saying it was "surprised" at the plan for a 24-hour walkout, claiming it had met key requests before the union had actually decided on the strike action.
"Can you please explain why you won't reply to our invitations to meet to discuss [the proposals]," Ryanair chief people officer Eddie Wilson wrote in a letter to Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk yesterday.
Staff set out their demands in a Ryanair Crew Charter on Tuesday, including prioritising seniority, the right to sick pay, a "fair system" for base transfers, safety and rostering and a "key" demand that Ryanair employment contracts recognise national law and jurisdiction a worker is based in.
Wilson said he wrote to the union on Tuesday with details of Ryanair's new base transfer system and a new annual leave system based on seniority, and has invited it to discuss the proposals early next week.
"We invite you call off this unnecessary strike as there is no reasonable ground for Fórsa's threat to disrupt the travel plans of our Irish customers next Thursday," he added in his latest letter. A Fórsa spokesman told Morning Wire: "Fórsa officials are currently considering the union's response to Ryanair's correspondence, which we received yesterday afternoon."
The action comes just eight months after Ryanair agreed to recognise trade unions last December, but the ITF said little progress on this had been made in the last six months.
Ryanair is facing multiple strike actions at the moment. Air traffic control (ATC) strikes in France and Germany today have caused delays to 71 of the airline's 441 first wave of departures this morning, it admitted.
"We sincerely regret these unjustified delays and are doing our utmost to limit their impact on flights throughout the rest of today," the company said on Twitter.
Read more: Ryanair calls for urgent action to prevent strikes causing summer meltdown