Ryanair pilots strike for first time in 32-year history
Ryanair faced the first industrial action by its pilots in its 32-year history this morning.
But according to Ryanair, the strikes by its pilots in Germany had minimal impact on its services.
It said nine of its 36 first wave flights this morning were delayed, but there were no cancellations.
It said it expects all flights to operate throughout the rest of the day.
The strike by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union took place from 05:00 to 09:00 local time (04:00 to 08:00 GMT).
The German union called the strike after talks were cancelled at short notice by the airline because it rejected two of the five union council members present at the negotiating table.
"From VCs’ point of view this refusal clearly shows that the principles of trade union autonomy are disregarded by Ryanair and that the company does not truly desire to enter into constructive negotiations," it said in a statement.
"Ryanair’s public offer to conduct negotiations with VC can only be classified as a further publicity stunt", said Ingolf Schumacher, head of VCs’ Industrial Department.
"In the history of the VC, there has never been a case in which the collective bargaining autonomy has been trampled on by an employer as it is now the case with Ryanair. This makes it clear to VC that the company is not interested in a mutually constructive cooperation, based on trust and equality. Rather, Ryanair is trying to win time and attempting to delay the beginning of collective bargaining."
Ryanair said it was happy to negotiate with its German pilots and the VC officials but would not enter into negotiations with ‘non-Ryanair pilots, or a non-Ryanair pilot who is in litigation with Ryanair’.
Ryanair has also been battling with pilots in Ireland, Portugal and Italy who had threatened strike action.
But they called off plans for pre-Christmas strikes after Ryanair, who not previously recognised unions, agreed to recognise unions for the first time.
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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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