LAST UPDATE | 2 Aug 2018

IRISH RYANAIR PILOTS are set to go on strike for a fifth day – Friday, 10 August.

Trade union Fórsa has today given notice that directly-employed Irish-based Ryanair pilots will stage a further one-day strike commencing at 1am on 10 August.

This will be the fifth one-day strike by these pilots since 12 July. They are also expected to strike tomorrow.

Belgian and Swedish pilots are already striking on 10 August, and there are expectations that German and Dutch pilot could also go on strike on the same day.

In a statement released this afternoon, Fórsa said: “For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots’ reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters.

In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Fórsa’s repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks.

“The airline’s escalation of the dispute last Wednesday (25 July) – when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland – led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff.”

Meeting 

In a statement, Ryanair said it “deeply regrets” that further strike action has been planned.

The airline’s Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said the fifth day of strike action is “irresponsible” and “disrupting customers”.

Jacobs said Fórsa has called for meetings with Ryanair but rejected invitations from the airline over the past two weeks and “instead called a fourth strike tomorrow and now a fifth strike by just 25% of Irish pilots”.

“In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute.

In this case, after four days of unsuccessful strikes, a handful of Aer Lingus pilots are working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium and Germany to further disrupt Ryanair’s business and Ryanair’s customers next Friday, 10 August.

Jacobs said Fórsa “should now explain why they repeatedly called for meetings, and yet when Ryanair went to two meetings, no progress has been made because the Pilots Committee and Fórsa spent the majority of the time outside the room consulting with Aer Lingus pilots”.

Ryanair has already cancelled 20 of its flights to and from Ireland tomorrow, affecting 3,500 customers. The airline previously said that all customers affected by the cancellations have already been notified by email or text message.