Ryanair offers to meet with the irish drivers before the strike

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ryanair (LON:RYA) has proposed to meet with the irish drivers before Wednesday, the date to which their union has called the strike, seeking to remove the last threat of flight disruptions during the holiday season.

Ryanair has made a 180-degree turn on Friday by announcing its intention to recognize the unions of drivers, a first in the history of the airline low cost, founded 32 years ago.

The other two pilots ‘ unions – the Italian Anpac and the Portuguese Spac – have suspended their call for strike after this announcement, but the irish trade union Impact, which is home to Ialpa, the trade union of airline pilots, who filed a strike notice for 20th December, has asked to see emergency management.

Impact on Saturday said that a meeting on Wednesday would take place too late to prevent the stop working of 24 hours scheduled on the same day, then, Saturday night, Ryanair has proposed to move the meeting to Tuesday.

“Ryanair has proposed to meet Impact/Ialpa and their committee of pilots from Ryanair on Tuesday if it suits them better,” said chief operating officer of the group, Peter Bellew, in a press release posted on his account Instagram.

A spokesperson for Impact said that the union was ready to meet the management of Ryanair at any time. “Once we met, we will be able to make a decision about a postponement of the trade union action”, he said.

Peter Bellew added that the German trade union Vereinigung Cockpit had agreed to meet with Ryanair on Wednesday to discuss the recognition of the union.

It said that Ryanair had offered to meet with the Portuguese trade union Spac on 21 December and that the trade unions british Balpa and Italian Anpac had agreed to meet with Ryanair at the beginning of January. “Let’s continue our discussions. Bring the people quietly to their homes for Christmas”, he added.

The drivers rallied, following the announcement shock in September of the cancellation of 20,000 flights because of glitches in the tables of services. They denounce a climate of work, unfortunate and a severe shortage of personnel, what direction belies, ensuring in addition provide among the best wages and working conditions in the sector.

The refusal of the director general Michael O’leary to admit the trade unions has been one of the foundations of the model to low-cost Ryanair, which has grown in the last few decades the status of the small local company to the number one in Europe in passenger traffic.

(Conor Humphries, Juliette Rouillon for the French service)