Ryanair cancels flights amid pilot strike and wants a mediator to talk to unions
The move comes ahead of major stoppage planned for Friday August 10, but Ryanair says, ‘This is part and parcel of life in aviation when you recognise unions’
Dublin — Ryanair proposed that a third-party mediator join talks with a trade union representing its Irish pilots who went on strike for a fourth time on Friday before wider stoppages planned around Europe next week. The Fórsa trade union, which had called for such mediation, welcomed Ryanair’s response and said it would recommend it to pilots. Europe’s biggest airline by passenger numbers agreed to recognise unions for the first time late last year but negotiations since have faltered. It has seen strikes in some of its biggest markets, including Ireland, Spain and Italy as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements with trade unions. About a quarter of Ryanair’s 350 pilots based in Ireland have taken part in a series of one-day strikes and a number picketed in the rain outside Dublin airport on Friday morning. Ryanair has limited the damage from the Irish strikes so far and said passengers on the 20 flights it cancelled from the 300 that flew in and out of Ireland on Frida...
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