Ryanair cabin crew employed in Belgium will be on strike around the New Year to demand respect for labor rights by the Irish airline, unions announced on Friday. The approximately 450 hostesses and stewards of the low-cost carrier are called to stop work on December 30 and 31, January 1, as well as January 7 and 8, announced the French-speaking Christian unions CNE and Flemish ACV Puls.
The social movement should lead to many flight cancellations. The 15 Ryanair planes based in Belgium will not fly, warned Didier Lebbe, permanent secretary of the CNE, reached by telephone by AFP. He estimates that around half of the company’s Belgian traffic will be cut, the other half being provided by aircraft based abroad. The movement is part of a long standoff between the Belgian unions and management. Several moves have already grounded planes this year.
“We want Ryanair to respect Belgian law”
“We want Ryanair to respect Belgian law and stop the aggressive and execrable policy vis-à-vis its staff,” summarized Lebbe, who is also asking the Belgian State to take the company to court.
The unions denounce in particular the illegal pressure exerted on the staff to encourage them to agree to go and work punctually on other bases abroad, in particular in Dublin, where the company is short of manpower.
They also accuse Ryanair of not correctly declaring its employees to social security and of paying wages sometimes below the legal minimum.