American Airlines pilots have offered a range of supports to their 'brothers and sisters' at Ryanair
They want crew members at the Irish company to unionise.
THE LABOUR GROUP that represents American Airlines pilots has offered to fly Ryanair crew to its Texas headquarters to receive industrial relations training.
President of the Allied Pilots Association (APA) Daniel Carey said the organisation has put forward “significant investment” as part of a campaign to help pilots at the Irish low-cost carrier form a union.
Carey said he met with several Ryanair pilots in Dublin last week, including four captains and members of the airline’s in-house employee relations committees.
APA – which has 16,000 members and claims to be the world’s largest independent pilots union – has also communicated with UK-based “pilot leaders” who have been in contact with workers in Germany.
When asked why an American union was getting involved in labour relations at an Irish company, Carey said: ”We share the same sky as the professional aviators of Ryanair.
“In the airline industry, they always talk about open skies. Open skies is probably in the not too distant future going to be a single sky,” he said.
“We would like to see the Ryanair pilots enjoy the same labour relations that are prevalent in western Europe and North America … We look at these pilots as our brothers and sisters.”
Financial support
Carey said APA has so far offered to provide basic training to Ryanair employees to teach them “how to establish a modern, constructive dialogue in labour relations”.
He said the organisation is willing to fly pilots to its base in Forth Worth, Texas, to receive “basic negotiation training and advice”.
It is also planning to make promotional videos to “unify the pilot group”.
Carey didn’t rule out providing direct financial support to help Ryanair pilots unionise.
He said APA has in the past offered loans to workers in other parts of the world, but added, ”That’s something that we’d have to run by our legal department to make sure that it complies with the labour laws of the European Union.”
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary
Carey said he believed it was important for Ryanair pilots to form a union because it would create “a healthy dialogue with management”. He also believes it would be of benefit to the company.
“This is a company that has €1.2 billion a year in annual profit,” he said. “It would only take a small investment in their employee stakeholders to bring the company into a modern day labour relations model.
“Mr O’Leary’s thinking, as we say over here, is old-school.”
Southwest
Carey noted that Ryanair’s business model was inspired by Southwest Airlines, which is heavily unionised.
“They’ve experienced great labour relations in their 40-year history,” he said. “I think it would be a benefit to Ryanair and the employee stakeholders to have a collaborative team effort.”
Carey was speaking to Fora before the news broke that Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary offered to increase pilot pay and and improve working conditions, but only if they agree not to negotiate through third-party unions.
The APA president confirmed through a statement this afternoon that the offer to provide support to Ryanair pilots still stands.
“Now more than ever APA’s support of Ryanair’s professional pilots is unconditional. It is now very clear that a unified collective voice will deliver positive results both for the Ryanair pilots and for Ryanair’s operation and long-term viability.”
