The Ryanair subsidiary Lauda Europe is facing a strike for the first time in the company's history. The Uso Illes Baleares trade union is calling on its members at the Palma de Mallorca site to hold a work stoppage lasting several days. This is to be completed in July 2022.
At the end of April 2022, a ballot was held among the unionized Lauda flight attendants based in Palma de Mallorca. This called on the employee representatives to carry out collective bargaining and, if necessary, to organize industrial action. According to the union, the Maltese airline Lauda Europe should not only strictly reject negotiations about wage increases, but also not consider Uso to be a "legitimate negotiating partner". According to employee representatives, the management of the Ryanair subsidiary should "show unreasonable".
The main reason for the discrepancy is that the Palma de Mallorca base does not have a collective agreement with the Uso union. Wages are set by the company itself. The employee representatives claim that the monthly payments can allegedly even be below the legal minimum wage. Illnesses should be answered with the "Sickletters" known from Austria. According to Uso, the Ryanair subsidiary should carry out systematic sick leave monitoring and put pressure on the employees at the Palma de Mallorca base.
If there is no agreement between the management of Lauda Europe and the regional group of the Spanish trade union Uso, the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 10th, 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 30th and July 31, 2022 the work of the flight attendants will be laid down. It is said to be all-day strikes that affect entire shifts. In concrete terms, this means that the work stoppages only end when the scheduled shift is over, even if it is already after midnight.
It is currently not possible to estimate how many Lauda Europe flight attendants based in Palma will actually take part in the strikes. Not all cabin crew are unionized as a whole. Nevertheless, restrictions in flight operations are to be expected. Since the Maltese carrier flies to various European airports from Palma, there could be cancellations and delays. In the DA-CH region, Lauda Europe serves Ryanair at the airports of Vienna, Berlin, Bremen, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Dresden, Weeze, Frankfurt-Hahn, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Memmingen, Nuremberg, Münster/Osnabrück and others Hamburg. Palma holidaymakers who have Ryanair tickets should therefore keep an eye on how the situation is developing.