Here comes the hot summer of low cost: strikes are already scheduled in July, with consequent inconvenience for holidaymakers, staff of Ryanair and Vueling companies. It was the Irish low-cost airline that announced it first, but the Spanish airline will stop first (in Italy): the union has called a 24-hour strike by the flight attendants of Vueling Airlines for next July 21st.
"The initiative to fight", reads a note, "was decided after the failure of the meetings in which the company delegation refused to accept our requests for changes to the company contract, on which the Unione Sindacale di Base had expressed a negative evaluation, having just signed up with another professional association despite our representativeness. This strike therefore raises the issue of a insufficient contract with wages 30% below low-cost competitors and a regulatory part with the rest system, in some cases in contrast with the provisions of the law but also due to the lack of respect for union representation, freely chosen by the workers".
During the week, however, it was the turn of Ryanair, which at the end of the month will have to face a maxi strike involving its pilots and flight attendants in Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. Ryanair flight crew will go on strike in Italy on July 25 for 24 hours while in Belgium, Spain and Portugal the protest will also extend to Thursday 26 July “against the approach of the Irish company towards its workers”, explain the unions of these four countries. And, according to the Spanish union Sitcpla, the participation should be massive with 4-5 thousand employees who will cross their arms thus involving about 200 flights that would remain grounded.
Employees ask that the Irish low cost company respect the rights of workers in each country in which it operates and recognize the representatives elected by each organization to negotiate a collective agreement. But they also want to no longer have to pay for uniforms and for food and water when they are on duty. Meanwhile Michael O'Leary's company will have to contend with one 24-hour strike proclaimed only in Ireland for Thursday 12 July, a day which coincides with the start of the holidays on the Emerald Isle and which will therefore affect thousands of travelers departing from Dublin. In this case the dispute between the workers and the company concerns the management by the management of the transfers of the pilots between the different Ryanair bases. According to the union, the company "is not taking seriously" the requests of the pilots.
