New delays and cancelations as unions call on Ryanair cabin crew to strike until 2023

The eleventh day of the Ryanair cabin crew strike has led to further disruption at Catalan airports with several canceled and delayed flights. On Wednesday, the USO and SITCPLA unions called on workers to go on strike until January 7, 2023.

As of 7 pm, 6 flights have been canceled at Barcelona El Prat (to and from London, Milan, and Brussels), while another 53 have been delayed. In Girona, the other Catalan airport from which Ryanair operates, there has been 5 delayed departure and 4 arrivals.

Across Spain, 9 flights have been canceled and 246 have been delayed.

Easyjet staff, who have also been demanding improved working conditions over the past few weeks, will be on strike again from July 29 to 31.

In the past weeks, numerous flights connecting Barcelona to cities across the continent such as London, Milan, Rome, Brussels, and Palma de Mallorca have been canceled, raising the prospect of travel chaos as the summer tourist season returns to Catalonia.

Five more months of strikes

Further cancellations and delays are expected as industrial action over ongoing disputes is set to occur until 2023 at the ten airports in Spain where the low-cost carrier operates, including Barcelona and Girona.

Earlier, unions had called for strikes until July 28, but on Wednesday they extended the initiative from August 8 to January 7, 2023. Every week, from Monday to Thursday and for 24 hours, workers have been called to halt their activity.

The new strike has been called because "Ryanair has not shown any intention to approach unions’ demands, but the opposite, as it has rejected any move to negotiate," a press release shared by the unions reads.

There are three main reasons why they are continuing with the protests. Unions call for Ryanair to "follow minimum regulations under Spanish labor and unions law," rehire 11 workers who were "fired during the strikes from June and July because they stopped working as protected by their constitutional rights," and "put an end to ongoing sanctions to over 100 employees due to the strikes," the unions demanded.

Dispute

The USO and Sitcpla unions argue that Ryanair employees are treated like "third-class workers" and call on the company to comply with "basic labor rights and court rulings." 

According to them, the low-cost airline should sit down to negotiate "a collective agreement and decent working conditions for all staff."

The union considers the measure of silencing the protest as they "have not obeyed the airline's illegal rules," a statement from the USO union read. 

They also claim that many of the conditions agreed upon are actually based on court rulings won against the company, such as the salary increase of €1,000 in 2022 and €800 for 2023, as well as the fixed schedule of 5 days' work and three days' rest.