ITF and ETF congratulate Fórsa on Ryanair recognition deal

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) congratulate their Irish affiliate union Fórsa on signing a recognition deal to represent Ryanair cabin crew.

The deal covers all cabin crew based in Dublin, Cork and Shannon who are directly employed by Ryanair. Fórsa will be further engaging with the labour agencies Crewlink and Workforce to achieve recognition for all Irish-based cabin crew.

This represents an important step towards fair pay and conditions for cabin crew based in the Republic of Ireland. ITF and ETF now call on Ryanair to negotiate in good faith with Fórsa and follow this with a collective bargaining agreement that delivers concrete improvements in pay and working conditions.

Nevertheless, there remain many countries across Ryanair’s network where workers are not covered by such agreements – despite Ryanair’s promise to recognise and negotiate with unions. Even the difficult decision to call industrial action has not led to a breakthrough in some countries. In fact, in some jurisdictions workers have been driven to take legal action to protect their fundamental right to strike.

ITF and ETF call on Ryanair to engage constructively with unions wherever its workers are based.