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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/15/ryanair-to-recognise-unions-in-historic-shift-to-stop-christmas-strike-by-pilots
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| Ryanair to recognise unions in historic shift to stop Christmas strike by pilots | Ryanair to recognise unions in historic shift to stop Christmas strike by pilots |
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| Ryanair is to recognise pilot unions for the first time in its 32-year history in an attempt to prevent strikes by pilots in the run-up to Christmas. | |
| Michael O’Leary’s refusal to recognise unions was at the heart of the low-cost model he developed to turn a small Irish regional airline into Europe’s largest carrier by passenger numbers. | |
| The chief executive has frequently dismissed pilots’ complaints and insisted on pay negotiations being conducted through company-controlled representative committees at individual bases. However, a shortage of pilots led the airline to cancel a swathe of flights earlier this year, shifting more power to staff. | |
| “Recognising unions will be a significant change for Ryanair, but we have delivered radical change before,” O’Leary said in a statement. “We hope and expect that these structures can and will be agreed with our pilots early in the new year.” | |
| The company said it was urging the Irish pilots’ union, Ialpa, to call off threatened industrial action on Wednesday “so that our customers can look forward to travelling home for Christmas without the threat or worry of pilot strikes hanging over them”. | |
| Ialpa, a branch of the Impact union, said it had received a letter from Ryanair and was considering the contents, and would respond to the company later on Friday. | |
| Should the strike take place, it would be the first in Ryanair’s history. The airline’s statement marked a dramatic change of tone from three days ago, when Ryanair said it would “face down” the threatened strike, and is likely to be met with a considerable degree of caution by pilots and unions. | |
| Ryanair said it had written to pilots’ unions in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, inviting each of them to talks to recognise the unions as the representative body for the airline’s pilots in each country. | |
| The move would give Ryanair some leeway to negotiate separately, as its bases are spread across Europe. Pilots had been working towards creating a pan-European union. | |
| The airline said it would only recognise the unions as long as they established specific committees of Ryanair pilots. “Ryanair will not engage with pilots who fly for competitor airlines in Ireland or elsewhere,” it said. | |
| O’Leary has long maintained, in the face of much evidence, that complaints about employment practices were not made by his staff. | |
| The chief executive said he wanted to remove the threat of a strike. “If the best way to achieve this is to talk to our pilots through a recognised union process, then we are prepared to do so,” he said. | |
| Pilots in Germany had voted to take industrial action during the Christmas period over pay and conditions. Italian and Portuguese pilot unions have also threatened strikes in the coming days. |