Due to movement social around wages And working conditions in Belgium, the strike within the low cost Ryanair led to the cancellation of 88 flights between Monday and Tuesday August 15.
Ryanair’s dedicated airport in Belgium, that of Charleroi, lives a painful August 15 bridge. The pilots’ strike, the third in a month, forced the low cost to cancel 44 flights on Monday and as many on Tuesday (i.e. 88 flights out of 340 planned), leaving some 15,000 passengers on the floor. Both departures and arrivals are affected. Passengers whose flight has been canceled are asked not to show up at the airport.
The pilots criticize the management for not wanting to respect a collective agreement, which provides for a certain number of rest days in return for wage cuts granted in 2020 at the time of the crisis of the Covid-19. If consultations between union and management have taken place, it is clear that no progress is to be declared. “We are told that the part of the agreement on rest time is null and void, it amounts to not applying labor law”, explained mid-July Alain Vanalderweireldt, president of the BeCA (Belgian Cockpit Association). Moreover, contrary to its commitments, “the company did not want to restore the full salary and considers that the indexations that have taken place”in accordance with Belgian law, “worth for restoration”says Kevin Cam, a Ryanair pilot. “There is an exasperation of the staff. We are facing an employer who openly says that he will not respect the laws (…) who tells us “withdraw all complaints, otherwise I increase the working time and I do not index your wages””says Didier Lebbe, representative of the Union of Employees.
After already two strikes by Belgian pilots during the weekends of July 15-16 and July 29-30, this time it is their first action during the week. During the last movement at the end of July, a hundred flights were concerned.
