At the ECA June Conference, ECA and its 38 Member associations, representing over 38.000 pilots in Europe, voted in favour of offering support to Ryanair pilots to exercise their rights to be organised within a trade union and to effectively negotiate and maintain their collective rights.

The current situation in Europe imposes multiple challenges to workers of  trans-national airlines – i.e. a company with bases across multiple countries – to organise themselves and have one single voice to negotiate with their management. This situation is even more complex as the EU legal framework allows a company to fragment its workforce.

Ryanair pilots face several challenges. First of all they are split across several countries and jurisdictions in Europe; secondly a majority of them are not direct employees of Ryanair but sub-contractors; and lastly their management is hostile to any kind of effective workers’ representation within a union.

ECA and its Members have therefore decided to help Ryanair pilots to look into possible solutions to overcome these obstacles and to have a collective voice that allows them to negotiate a trans-national collective agreement with their company.

This process might take time and will be challenging but it would be a significant step forward for Ryanair pilots to effectively engage with their management on a wide range of issues that directly concern them!