Belgium-based pilots and cabin crew working at Ryanair are being asked to sit down from this Friday until Sunday. As the strikes in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal have taken the European side, they will not be the only low-cost airline employees to express their dissatisfaction. The Flemish Christian unions ACV Pulse and the French-speaking CNE, represented only on Ryanair, have asked the pilots and cabin crew of the Irish company to suspend work for three days, a significant moment for the air sector. First summer weekend.

The trade unions have long denounced the carrier as disrespectful to Belgian labor legislation, condemning the lack of a Belgium-based HR department and being familiar with the social legislation applicable there, which would have avoided many of the errors in the payslips.

According to CNE Permanent Secretary Didier Lebbe, after the “analogy of negotiations”, the unions demanding a minimum wage for all have made no progress.

Already in April, more than 300 flights were canceled at Saventum (Brussels Airport) and Charleroi (BSCA) airports. This strike movement will result in the cancellation of several flights, although it is difficult to know the extent, but Ryanair does not communicate in advance about the number of cancellations.

European strike

Ryan Air is facing a European staff strike with similar strikes in Spain (June 24-July 2), Portugal (June 24-26), France (June 25-26) and Italy (June 25).

However, condemning the “false” claims of the Belgian unions and declaring that the strike was “fully compliant with Belgian law”, the carrier felt right in its own boot. For the company, the two unions should negotiate “for improvements rather than making false statements and threats to unnecessarily disrupt the travel plans of our Belgian customers”.

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair Group, who questioned Belga in mid-June, said he did not think there would be a “strike in Belgium at the end of June” and that he would never trust the deals. Belgian Unions. In his opinion, the activity organized in Belgium in April has not had a “small impact”. “There will be no European strike,” he assured himself. “We do not think there will be major strikes.He prophesied.