At Ryanair, several unions called to stop work on Friday in Spain, Portugal and Belgium. At the start and arrival of Charleroi, this movement forced the Company to cancel 127 flights between Friday and Sunday.
Le Monde with AFP
The European sky was slightly disrupted, Friday, June 24, by a strike at Brussel Airlines and Ryanair at the start of the summer season. Employees say they are under pressure in the face of the sudden recovery of air traffic.
At Ryanair, several European hostess and stewards unions called to stop work on Friday in Spain, Portugal and Belgium, then from Saturday in Italy and France. In Belgium, this protest movement forced the Irish company at low costs to cancel 127 flights between Friday and Sunday at the start and the arrival of Charleroi, where most of its activity is concentrated.
The company will only be able to provide at this airport between 30 % and 40 % of its planned activity, a spokesperson for Brussels South Charleroi Airport, the company which which Use the airport.
show in Spain on the minimum service
This social movement is doubled in Belgium for a strike at Brussels Airlines (Lufthansa group) scheduled until Saturday. The company announced at the start of the week the cancellation of 315 flights in Brussels-Zaventem from Thursday to Saturday.
In Portugal, the strike at Ryanair had a more limited impact, with two flights canceled only on Friday morning, according to the SNPVAC union. The movement must continue until Sunday.
In Spain, where Ryanair employs 1,900 people, no flight was canceled, excluding links with Belgium, the Irish company having hired an showdown with unions on the issue of minimum service. p>
The Spanish Ministry of Transport has, in fact, decided Thursday to apply a minimum service up to 82 % of thefts on certain destinations, and says it wants to combine “the right to strike” to the “interest of travelers “. But, according to the unions, Ryanair has decided to go beyond these rules, forcing employees to maintain 100 % of its flights, which the latter intend to contest in court.
after Ryanair, A strike at Easyjet in Spain
“The company informed the employees that all thefts were subject to the minimum service, threatening them with disciplinary reprisals,” denounced before journalists Ernesto Iglesias, USO union representative at Ryanair. The Irish company “does not respect the law,” said the union official, who demands an improvement in working conditions, this group being the only one, according to the USO, not to have collective agreement in Spain. >
In a statement transmitted to AFP, the CEO of the company, Eddie Wilson, estimated that the strikers were looking for “only confrontation”, recalling having “signed an agreement” on wages and schedules with another union. “We provide 2,500 flights per day. Most of these flights will continue to be insured, even if a” Mickey “union strikes in Spain or if the Belgian cabin staff unions want to strike,” said 14 June the director general of the company, Michael O’Leary.
In Spain, the strike at Ryanair – the first company in number of passengers transported in the country – must continue until July 2, date from the start of the holidays in many European countries. It will be relayed from the 1 er July by a social movement in the British low cost company Easyjet: the USO union has planned nine days of strike in a month at Barcelona airports, Malaga and Mallorca (Balearic).
These strikes occur while air traffic has experienced a bounce dazzling in recent weeks, mainly in low cost companies, due to the lifting of most travel restrictions related to COVVI-19. This rapid restart has caused difficulties in many airports, and some companies find themselves forced to cancel flights due to a lack of workforce.