Ryanair’s 1,800 cabin crew in Spain have said that they will go on strike on 8, 10 and 13 January unless the Irish low-cost airline agrees to improve their work and pay conditions.
The USO and Sitcpla trade unions have called for 24-hour strikes having failed to reach an agreement with the airline management during mediation at the Interconfederal Service of Mediation and Arbitration (SIMA).
Both unions had given an ultimatum to Ryanair stating that if they did not reach an agreement, they would call strikes for the first half of January.
“It is unbelievable that our demands for minimum compliance with Spanish law by Ryanair are still not being met and that we still have to fight for the airline to meet the Spanish laws”, said the spokesman for the Sitcpla trade union , Óscar López .
Both unions say that, despite what has already been said in the courts, the Labour Inspectorate and the European Commission throughout this year, Ryanair continue to refuse to accept the national law and all of its consequences.
However there is a period of ten days where things might still change as the Ryanair management have the opportunity to meet with the legal requirements in Spain, ” reads the joint note agreed by both unions.
And more bad news for the airline as, according to Which? Travel, Ryanair is the airline which suffers most from incidents caused by excessive alcohol, with a new survey showing one in six passengers reporting in-flight disruption.
In a survey of 7,900 readers, 17 per cent of those who had flown on the airline in the past year reported that they had experienced “shouting, drunkenness, obnoxiousness, verbal abuse or other problems”.
Currently, Ryanair is Europe’s largest low-cost carrier and operates some 2,000 daily flights from 89 bases in Europe – 13 in Spanish airports.
