Ryanair faces pilots’ strike in Germany

Ryanair may have created a key moment in its history by officially recognising a pilot union here for collective bargaining purposes as of yesterday, but the airline will still endure a strike today by its pilots in Germany.

From 5am to 9am local time, pilots who are directly employed by the airline and are members of Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) will engage in a stoppage.

According to the union: “All flights that are planned by German airports during this period will be affected.”

It said initial negotiations with Ryanair management, scheduled for Wednesday, were cancelled at short notice by the company because it rejected two of the five VC company council members present for negotiations.

“From VC’s 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,” said a VC spokesman.

The head of the union’s industrial department, Ingolf Schumacher, said Ryanair’s public offer to conduct negotiations with VC “can only be classified as a further publicity stunt.

“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 is now the case with Ryanair,” he said.

“This makes it clear to VC that the company is not interested in a mutually constructive co-operation, based on trust and equality. Rather, Ryanair is trying to win time and attempting to delay the beginning of collective bargaining.”

Ryanair said the disruption to customers in Christmas week was “unjustified and unnecessary”. The airline wrote to VC yesterday, agreeing to meet on January 5 to progress negotiations on a collective labour agreement for Germany.

It said at Wednesday’s meeting that VC confirmed the Ryanair Pilots Council had not been elected by Ryanair’s pilots, and contained one former contract pilot who had not flown for Ryanair for 15 months, who was currently in litigation with the airline in Germany.

“Ryanair explained that it was happy to negotiate with its German pilots and the VC officials but it would not enter into negotiations with non-Ryanair pilots, or a non-Ryanair pilot who is in litigation with Ryanair,” it said.

Ryanair advised customers in Germany to turn up as normal today as it planned to operate all scheduled flights.

In Ireland, Impact trade union has welcomed Ryanair management’s written confirmation that the company recognises the union as the representative of its pilots for collective bargaining purposes as of yesterday.

Impact said it has accepted an invitation from the company to attend a meeting on January 3 to agree a comprehensive recognition agreement that will establish collective bargaining procedures in the airline.

The union said it expects management to reach agreement on procedures quickly so that the parties could move on to negotiate substantial issues around pilots’ pay and working conditions.

It said the company’s confirmation that it recognised the union and would conclude a comprehensive agreement meant the danger of industrial action had receded “for the present”.

Impact assistant general secretary Ashley Connolly said of the breakthrough: “We think it will assist thousands of workers elsewhere, who want independent workplace representation but whose anti-union employers had been encouraged and emboldened by Ryanair’s previous antipathy towards Impact and other unions.”