Pilots of Spain’s easyJet company went on strike on Friday to demand the restoration of working conditions before the Covid-19 pandemic.

After the aircrew, it is the turn of the pilots of the Spanish company EasyJet to strike. With the movement, which began on Friday, they are calling for the restoration of working conditions that existed before the Covid-19 pandemic. Two weeks ago, aircrew ended a similar strike that ended in an agreement.

This new easyJet strike, in the middle of the high tourist season, comes on top of a strike by flight crews at another low-cost airline, Irish Ryanair, where two Spanish unions have called for strike action until early January 2023.

At Easyjet, the strike will take place from Friday to Sunday this week and the following week, then from Saturday 27 August to Monday 29 August, in Barcelona (north-east), Malaga and the Mediterranean island of Palma de Mallorca. Mallorca and Menorca.

EasyJet has already canceled 8 flights

On Friday, the first day of the strike, eight of the British company’s flights were cancelled, the majority at Barcelona airport. Ryanair has canceled 20 flights in Spain since Monday, according to the USO union.

“The strike is the only alternative in the face of (easyJet’s) refusal to restore the conditions that pilots had before the Covid-19 pandemic and to negotiate a second collective agreement,” the Sepla union explained in a press release.

The Spanish Ministry of Transport has established a minimum service obligation of 57 to 61% to “match the interest of citizens and their mobility needs with the right of workers to strike,” he explained in a press release.

Allowances have been cut during the pandemic

“During the worst months of the pandemic”, the Sepla union justified in its press release that EasyJet’s pilots accepted a reduction in wages “to guarantee not only employment but also the survival of the company in Spain”.

But, according to the union, easyJet has now returned to “similar” pre-pandemic flights. The British company’s flight crew ended a strike earlier this month on July 28 after winning a 22% pay rise in three years, according to the USO union.