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Bloomberg
Ryanair Holdings Plc faces its first-ever strike as crews in Italy prepare to walk out as part of a push for unionisation and company-wide contracts, and staff in six other countriesconsider action.
Pilots and flight attendants in Italy plan to walk off the job for four hours from 1 pm local time on December 15, according two unions. Workers in markets including Ireland, where Ryanair is based, will announce ballot results in coming days, according to a person familiar with the plans.
Pilots in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Portugal and the Netherlands, as well as Italy, have formed local labour councils in recent weeks in order to press for collective bargaining outside Ryanair’s own employee representative committees. The move also opened up the possibility of strike action.
Ryanair has been left vulnerable after a staffing mix-up required it to squeeze six months of pilot leave into half that time.
The crisis was exacerbated by the poaching of crew by other airlines, forcing the Dublin-based carrier to cancel more than 20,000 flights and propose a new pay deal in order to maintain other services.
The take-up of the offer has been slow as some staff seek to exploit the opportunity to boost their leverage with the company.
The Italian Anpac union said in a letter to the Ryanair that the planned strike concerns the right to negotiate collective labour agreements, as well as issues including social security, health care and vacation planning.
The FIT-CISL union said
separately that the action had been deferred from December 10 at the request of the Italian
transport ministry.