A single European pilots union?
Is it time for one European pilots union? The airlines have moved across borders and now even the former “national” carriers are multinational. Yet our pilot unions are still very much based within national borders. We now can see the future of aviation in the medium term, blocks of largely state carriers fronted by BA, Lufthansa and Air France joined by Ryanair, Easy and maybe Air Berlin. If we look at BA, Lufthansa and Air France they are headquartered in their original countries of origin. However who says this has to remain. It would make sense if these companies moved their headquarters and employement contracts to say Ireland to take advantage of its low corporate tax rate and lax employment laws. Ryanair already has all European contracts based in Ireland, there is talk of Easy moving all its UK contracts to the continent. This is the future and there is no point in trying to hold back time, we need to talk about this now.
Lets have a look at Ryanair. I take this as an example, what is happening in Ryanair probably will happen in your company, it has to or else that company cannot compete, lets call it the lowest common denominator. This is not about Ryanair management ( they are doing their job- making money) it is about us as pilots and our actions. Ryanairs pilots have allowed their terms and conditions to become seriously eroded. A Captain in Ryanair that has an Irish contract for about 10 years is on about 93000 euro basic. A new Ryanair captain starts at just over 49000 euro rising to 60000 euro ( in the UK max is about 54000 stg). If your base is closed down or you apply to move you go onto the new rates. You can see salaries have reduced by about a third in ten years.
Ryanair has approx half of its pilots not employed directly by Ryanair but what they like to call an in-house employment provider. It is not clear who owns this company but as far as I know it only provides pilots to Ryanair and these pilots can only fly for Ryanair. These guys are paid by flight hour. Strangely Ryanair considers these pilots “ contractors” although by definition a contractor works for more than one company. The idea behind these guys is that if the employed pilots go on strike the “ contractors” will keep the show on the road.
Ryanair also has pilots from over 100 different nationalities. The Irish Aviation Authority will give almost anybody a 12 month exemption. How they get work permits I don’t know but this is a serious concern. If we go to the US there is no hope of getting a job with our qualifications yet we welcome them here even though we have many unemployed pilots. And more importantly in some parts of the world the going rate for a captain is about $2000. We know how many pilots are being produced in China and India amongst others. Will these pilots commute to and from Europe when European pilots cannot afford to live in Europe on the wages on offer? Are any of the unions dealing with this?
Medicals, hotels for sim or safely courses, license- all this comes out of your own pocket.
So does Ryanair have a union- NO. Will it have a union in the short to medium term- NO. Why? 41 bases across numerous jurisdictions. It is impossible to organise a union across so many jurisdictions. If one country votes for a union and strike Ryanair will simply reverse fly the sectors from the countries not on strike.
This post is not about Ryanair, they are just an example. The template they are following is beginning to be followed by the other airlines. Unions in their present state are totally ineffective in Ryanair, and will become ineffective in your airline unless changes are made NOW!!!