The easyJet airline joins Ryanair and faces several days of strike in the middle of the summer season at its bases in the airports of Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Malaga. The USO union, with representation among cabin crew, has called strikes for the next July 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, 29, 30 and 31, coinciding with the first, third and last weekend of the month. The 450 crew members of the British company in Spain are called to these 24-hour strikes.
“The reason for this strike is none other than the deadlock situation in which the negotiation of the II Collective Agreement for the company's crew is currently. The company has no interest in negotiating the improvement of the working conditions of the crew in Spain, so that we have the same working conditions as those who operate in other European bases such as France and Germany”, highlighted Miguel Galán, Secretary General of USO at easyJet Malaga.
As for Ryanair, USO and SITCPLA – with representation among cabin crew – have called protests for June 24, 25 and 26, which will coincide with strikes in Belgium, Portugal, France and Italy. In total, 2,700 Ryanair crew members are called to unemployment in five countries. The Belgian unions ACV PULS and CNE, and the Portuguese SNPVAC, have joined USO and SITCPLA and have called Ryanair crew members to strike in those countries on June 24, 25 and 26. In France, the SNPNC union will mobilize on June 25 and 26, while, from Italy, UILTrasporti and FILT-CGIL have done so on June 25.
“Currently, EasyJet crew members in Spain have a base salary of 950 euros, which is 850 euros less than our colleagues in France or Germany. And the variable, depends on the flight hours. Our bases are in very expensive cities and with the base salary we barely cover the rent or the mortgage.
"Spain has the lowest base salary for its crew of all EasyJet bases in Europe. If you fly many hours, you pay the bills, but at the cost of reducing rest time and flying more hours," he explains. Prince.
Among the improvements that USO claims for the new collective agreement at easyJet are the increase in the basic salary, without salary decreases in the amount of flight hours; include the payment of the seniority supplement; a salary increase according to the CPI during the term of the agreement; compensation for training hours; payment of the maintenance costs of the crew in the "refreshment courses" outside the national territory; limitation of flight times similar to that of other countries to favor the rest of the crews and conciliation; the annual renewal of all uniforms and that footwear is also included, among others.
From the easyJet company they affirm to be "very disappointed with this decision at such a critical moment for the industry, especially since we have already made considerable progress towards a new collective agreement". "We hope that instead of taking this direction they will return to negotiations with easyJet, as we would like to continue the constructive dialogue with them," they added.
The airline has explained that in the event that the union action is carried out, it is foreseeable that there will be some interruptions in its flight program to and from Malaga, Palma and Barcelona during the strike period. "Today easyJet plans to operate its full program and we assure customers that we will do everything possible to minimize any disruption," they stress.
The strike call at Ryanair comes after the airline has reached an agreement with CC.OO. to negotiate a collective agreement. The company and the USO and Sitcpla unions have broken off negotiations. The latter ensure that CC.OO. It barely has representation in the company, while the company's personnel director, Darrell Hughes, has told this newspaper that USO and Sitcpla "exaggerate" their representation figures. "We have been trying to reach an agreement with them for four years and it has been impossible; with CC.OO. we have achieved it in a short time and now we are working on an agreement that we hope to approve in 2023 and that will apply to the entire workforce, as is evident" he comments. From CC.OO. they claim to have a majority of representation in the ground staff, not in the cabin staff.
It is expected that the Ministry of Transport will dictate this Tuesday the minimum services that Ryanair will have to comply with during the strike days scheduled for this weekend and the month of July.
