You Won't Believe How Cheap This Cheap-Ass Airline Is With Its Own Employees

Ryanair, a cheap-ass airline in more ways than one, is currently in negotiations with employee unions, after ongoing strikes crippled service across Europe in past weeks. What are its workers so mad about? Well.

As you would imagine when you consider Ryanair’s “We undersell everyone but then kill you with fees for everything” business model, employees of the airline—which refused to even recognize unions for decades, before being forced to last year by strike threats—are unhappy about pay and workplace rules. But to really get to the essence of the place, this one gripe really tells the story. Via Bloomberg, bolding ours:

Many of the demands being pursued by unions representing pilots and cabin crew — from higher salaries and pensions to free drinking water — would lift expenses, something Chief Operations Officer Peter Bellew says is unacceptable if it threatens the discount model…

A charter presented by staff from 21 countries seeks a “fair living wage,” unpaid leave, reductions in agency employment, a universal pension scheme — and an end to being stung for an in-flight gulp of water.