Ryanair cabin crew based in Belgium will strike over the last weekend of the year, 30 December to 1 January, as well as 7-8 January, French-speaking Christian unions CNE and Flemish ACV Puls announced on Friday.
Cabin crew of the low-cost Irish airline based at Zaventem (Brussels Airport) and Charleroi condemn the attitude of Ryanair, which has still refused to guarantee the legal minimum wage in Belgium.
Negotiations for a new collective labour agreement for the staff have stalled for months, leading to a series of strikes across the year, including with the participation of pilots.
Staff are also angry about the uncertainty of Ryanair’s future at its Zaventem base, which closed at the end of October. Unions say that the uncertainty is leaving local staff. Ryanair management has previously stated it will make its decision about the fate of Zaventem by Christmas.
“The ‘monopoly’ policy, which consists of temporarily and illegally seconding staff to other European bases of Ryanair, to Dublin or London for example, has even intensified,” said Didier Lebbe, Permanent Secretary of the CNE. In his view, the company is attempting to “disgust” the staff and force them to resign.
In an open letter on 21 November, unions warned that if nothing had changed by the end of the year, that there would be disruption to the end-of-year celebrations.
“Unfortunately, nothing has changed,” said Hans Elsen of ACV Puls. “Via a survey carried out last weekend among cabin crew, 87% of respondents explained to us that, for them, nothing had changed. On the contrary, the situation has even deteriorated.”
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CNE and ACV Puls say that they have informed Ryanair of this strike, receiving only threats from the company in return.
Only Charleroi airport, where 15 Ryanair planes are stored overnight, should be strongly affected by the planned strike action. Aircraft at Charleroi are unlikely to leave the tarmac.
Some flights will still take place on aircraft registered outside of Belgium. Disruption at Zaventem is likely to be zero, as no aircraft have been stationed there since October.
