Ryanair flight attendant in Spain announce six-day strike

Flight attendant working for Ryanair in Spain will stage six days of strike action in late June and early July, potentially exacerbating disruptions affecting air travel across Europe.

Spanish staff from the USO and SITCPLA unions will stage two three-day strikes, June 24-26 and June 30-July 2.

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Ryanair said it did not expect widespread disruption and claimed that the majority of crew members would not support the planned action, The Guardian reported.

The general secretary of USO’s Ryanair section, Lidia Arasanz, said, “We have to resume the mobilizations so that the reality of our situation is known and the airline is forced to comply with basic labor laws.”

The unions, speaking in Madrid, said they would seek to coordinate action with other unions representing Ryanair staff in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal, according to Bloomberg.

The airline downplayed the prospect of any threat to its summer flights, as the carrier expects to operate more flights in its peak-season schedule than in 2019.

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“Ryanair has negotiated collective bargaining agreements covering 90% of our people across Europe. In recent months we have been negotiating improvements to those agreements as we work through the recovery phase of Covid. Those negotiations are going well and we do not expect widespread disruption this summer,” a company spokesman said.

Ryanair said it had reached an agreement with CCOO, which it described as “the largest and most representative union in Spain,” and was “delivering improvements for Spanish-based flight attendant and reinforcing Ryanair’s commitment to their welfare.”

The airline operates from more than 20 airports, including nine bases, in Spain, with more than 70 domestic routes, as well as large international tourist traffic.