After 11 days of strikes, Ryanair makes proposal to Belgian unions

At the beginning of January, the Belgian unions had given Ryanair management until the end of January to present a satisfactory proposal for the Belgian-based cabin crew. If not, they threatened to strike two weekends per month until a solution is found. On 31 January, Ryanair put a proposal on the negotiation table.

For months, negotiations for a new collective labour agreement have been at a standstill. The staff denounces the attitude of the Irish carrier, which refuses to guarantee the legal minimum wage in Belgium. This situation had already led the two Belgian Christian unions CNE and ACV Puls (the only ones representing the Ryanair staff based in Belgium) to organise strikes by cabin crew but also pilots at the beginning of last summer, and again by stewards and stewardesses during the two weekends of the New Year period.

“After eleven days of strike, management has finally put a proposal on the table,” said Didier Lebbe, permanent secretary of the CNE, in a phone conversation with Belga press agency on Tuesday that he forwarded to Aviation24.be. “We will now evaluate it and discuss it with the shop stewards.”

A new meeting with Ryanair is scheduled for Friday. “We are entering into a negotiation phase and therefore intend to be quiet about the content of the discussions. The first people to be informed will obviously be the workers concerned”, adds the trade unionist.

However, the first signs already seem positive, suggests Hans Elsen of ACV Puls, adding that there will certainly be no strike over the next weekend.

In the meantime, the Irish low-cost company announced that it would permanently close its base at Brussels Airport, with an impact for 44 cabin workers. and 15 pilots, but Ryanair would also add a 15th aircraft and 5 new destinations at its Brussels South Charleroi base.