Fifteen flights to and from Spain were canceled and 175 others delayed by a strike by cabin crew from easyJet and Ryanair on Saturday, the latter’s unions having announced a work stoppage for another twelve days.
As of 1 p.m. on Saturday, 5 easyJet flights and 10 Ryanair flights had been canceled and 175 others delayed, including 52 EasyJet and 123 Ryanair, the unions said in a statement. At Ryanair, representatives of the Spanish USO union have also said that new work stoppages will take place over three four-day periods: July 12-15, July 18-21 and July 25-28 at the ten Spanish airports. where the Irish company operates.
“After six days on strike and given the company’s unwillingness to listen to its staff and its preference for leaving thousands of passengers grounded rather than sitting down to negotiate a deal under Spanish law, we we were forced to call for new days of strike”, said USO spokeswoman Lidia Arasanz. Nearly 450 easyJet hostesses and stewards were called on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as July 15, 16, 17, 29, 30 and 31. They demand an alignment of their working conditions with the rest of their colleagues in Europe.
At Ryanair, the social movement, aimed at demanding better working conditions for the company’s 1,900 cabin crew in Spain, began on June 24. The Irish company claims to be the company that carries the most passengers in the Spanish market, serving “more than 650 routes” from the 27 airports where it operates in the country. Last week, the first part of the strike also involved company employees in other European countries such as Portugal, Belgium, Italy and France.
They demanded respect for labor law and an increase in wages, while the Irish company should record better activity this summer than in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the start of the strike at Ryanair, which has so far consisted of two three-day periods, “more than 200 flights” have been canceled and “nearly 1,000” others have been delayed, according to the USO union. And future work stoppages are otherwise likely to create similar levels of disruption.