Ryanair cabin crew in Spain announce 10 days of strike action

Unions representing Spanish based cabin crew for the low cost airline Ryanair have confirmed they will hold 10 days of strike action in September in protest at possible job losses and the closure of the airline's bases at Gran Canaria, Tenerife Sur in Canary Islands and Girona in northwest Spain).

The strikes will be held on 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 22nd, 27th and 28th of September, with the union Sitcpla explaining that they have been called "due to the serious threat... to the bases at Gran Canaria and Tenerife."

The union adds in a communique that, "the problems with Ryanair are not an isolated case, but a series of repeated failures to comply with agreements, which have forced the staff to defend their jobs."

Ryanair has called into question the future of the bases due to delays in deliveries of 135 Boeing 737 Max, due to safety fears following crashes involving the aircraft in Ethiopia and Indonesia which saw the loss of 346 lives.

Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary commented in July that the airline was operating with an excess of over 500 pilots and 400 cabin crew - something unions also reject.

Spanish workers are not the only ones to have scheduled strike action against Ryanair. UK-based pilots are due to walk out on Aug. 22-23 and Sept. 2-4, while Portuguese based cabin crew will strike between Aug. 21-25 in protest to the closure of Ryanair's base in Faro, which will see the loss of 120 jobs.

Tuesday saw employees of Spanish national airline Iberia confirm four days of strike action at Barcelona's El Prat airport in protest at working conditions, while security staff at the same airport have been on strike since Aug. 9 in another conflict over pay and conditions.