Ryanair, Europe’s largest and certainly most famous airline, has backed away from its ‘no unions ever’ stance and agreed to recognize pilots’ unions in several countries—a last-minute decision that has averted a wave of planned Christmas-season strikes.
The airline, well-known for its aggressive cost-cutting and marketing, and for its sharp-tongued founder/CEO Michael O’Leary, had said, up until Friday, that it would ‘face down’ the strike threat.
But labor problems at Ryanair have been growing over the past year or two, leading to strikes by ground employees and by increasing unhappiness by pilots, many of whom are technically independent contractors.
When a scheduling error last fall led to thousands of flight cancellations, pilots resisted changes and extras, in part out of anger at the company’s dismissing union efforts as being backed by competitors and as trying to “demean and disparage our collective success.”
Apparently, Ryanair has now come to a different conclusion, and has asked for talks with unions in Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain—the countries where its flight crews are based—to take part in talks. While the strikes appear to have been averted, many questions remain. It’s unclear, for instance, if the company intends to discuss all pilots, or only those directly employed, and whether it will also negotiate with other cabin crew members.
