Senior Ryanair executives loaded baggage for passengers at Dublin Airport yesterday to ensure there was no disruption of services during a strike by ground crews.
It is the first strike in the company, which has refused to recognise unions since it was set up 12 years ago. A Ryanair spokeswoman said later that only 14 of 63 ground handlers had participated in the morning stoppage and 13 in the afternoon.
The strikers' union, SIPTU, disputes these figures. It says that of 20 baggage handlers due to start work at 6 a.m. yesterday, two were out sick and one took an annual leave day, while 14 of the remaining 17 joined the strike. In the afternoon, it says, three staff took annual leave days and 15 of the remaining 17 joined the strike.
This reporter met all 29 strikers during the afternoon and they said they would continue their action, and escalate it if necessary, to secure union recognition.
A visit to the Ryanair check-in area at the airport confirmed that their two stoppages yesterday did not delay flights or inconvenience passengers.
Among the emergency baggage handlers was Ryanair's chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, the company secretary, Mr Howard Miller, and the director of group operations, Mr Colm McCarthy. All refused to speak to The Irish Times.
Mr O'Leary met the first shift at 6 a.m. yesterday, however, and spent an hour trying to persuade them to abandon the strike. According to the strikers, Mr O'Leary used strong language. "Even his tone was bad, for a chief executive," one said later. "When we asked for extra loading equipment he said `The bags aren't heavy'."
The strikers also claim that Mr O'Leary told them the SIPTU official handling the strike, Mr Paul O'Sullivan, was transferring to another area of the union, and a "bird" was taking over.
They say Mr O'Leary offered to pay them for the full day, even if they stopped work, provided they stayed on the premises and did not go down to the union office. When these and other points made by the strikers were put to a company spokeswoman later, she declined to comment.
Late on Thursday night SIPTU members also received letters at their homes from Mr McCarthy urging them to drop the threatened action. He told them: "Ryanair has always tried to deal with you, the GHAs [Ground Handling Agents] and all our people, fairly and directly . . . Ryanair will support those GHAs who continue to work through Friday. I hope you will work with us at this time and we, in turn, will fully support you.
"Nobody in Ryanair, least of all you, will benefit in this dispute - we all lose. The only people who will gain out of this dispute are Aer Lingus, who will be carrying our passengers."
Democratic Left's spokesman on employment and enterprise, Mr Pat Rabbitte, yesterday accused Ryanair of "trying to drag labour relations back into the Victorian era". He called on the Minister for Employment, Ms Harney, to assert the right of all workers to join and be represented by a trade union if that was their wish.
He accused Ryanair of being among an increasing number of employers willing to put the social partnership approach to the economy at risk. He said the PDs often pointed to Ryanair as a model of the sort of successful company that emerged as a result of the deregulation policies promoted by them in the late 1980s.
See also page 10