Ryanair pilots based in the Netherlands are to join this Friday's cabin crew strike scheduled in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In a statement, the Dutch pilots' union VNV said that over the last ten months they had been trying to negotiate a Collective Labour Agreement with Ryanair management, but that these attempts had failed.
They described as "modest" their demands that Dutch law should be applied to employment contracts, the use of contractors instead of direct employment should be ended, and "sufficient" sick pay and pension arrangements should be introduced.
Ryanair says it has already agreed to move to local contracts, local law and local taxation as quickly as possible next year, subject to reaching Collective Labour Agreement with unions in each country.
It claimed that unions led by pilots from rival airlines were interfering in this process and campaigning for strikes, which had a negative impact on its customers and business.
In a statement this afternoon Ryanair confirmed that it had cancelled 190 of its 2,400 flights scheduled for this Friday.
The airline said all of the 30,000 affected passengers were contacted about the cancellations by email and text earlier today.
Ryanair said customers flying this Friday who have not yet received an email or text notice can expect that their flight will operate as scheduled.
Ryanair described the disruption for customers as ‘unnecessary’ and said significant progress had been made in recent weeks during the union negotiations.
This latest strike action comes as Ryanair announced that it had agreed a Collective Labour Agreement in Italy with what it called "the 3 main cabin crew unions FIT CISL, ANPAC, and ANPAV".
Ryanair said the deal will cover all of its Italian based cabin crew from 1 October - but the negotiations did not include the two Italian cabin crew unions which are actually planning to strike on Friday.
Neither side has confirmed how many cabin crew belong to each union.
A spokesperson for the cabin crew unions planning to strike acknowledged that today's Italian CLA constituted some progress, but said it did not go far enough, in terms of a timeline for the application of local law to employment contracts.
The 3-year CLA would run from Friday 1 October 2018 to 31 December 2021, and be governed by Italian law and the Italian courts.
Ryanair said the deal would allow Italian staff to transition to local contracts "over an agreed period" with immediate access to Italian benefits such as maternity and paternity leave, and a new Italian pension scheme.
The airline also said earnings will increase because under a new pay structure, crews will benefit from higher Italian tax free allowances.
Ryanair Chief People Officer Eddie Wilson described today's announcement as a further sign of the significant progress Ryanair was making in reaching agreement with unions in different EU countries.
He said it disproved what he called "false claims made by smaller unions not involved in these negotiations, and who are threatening strikes, which will either not take place or be unsuccessful."
Mr Wilson confirmed that the airline has again invited German, Portuguese and Spanish unions to negotiations in a bid to agree similar CLAs in larger markets.
