Gardiner, a trade unionist himself, said: “Ryanair is in the High Court today seeking an injunction to prevent strike action from taking place this Thursday. This comes as no surprise given the airline refuses to provide its pilots with adequate pay and conditions and has long resisted attempts by its workers to unionise.

Gardiner continued: ‘’Trade union legislation in Ireland is heavily weighted in favour of the employer class, allowing them to drag trade unions through the courts for spurious reasons any time workers seek to take industrial action. Allowing employers to take unions to court in this way clearly plays into the hands of unscrupulous employers like Ryanair, who will do virtually anything to prevent their workers from being able to bargain collectively and are facilitated by a judiciary that is frequently hostile to the interests of working people.

Gardiner concluded by stating: ‘’It is past time for union legislation like the 1990 Industrial Relations Act to go, and for the rights of workers to take action in defence of their pay and conditions to be respected. Such legislation weakens trade unions and feeds the race to the bottom which has undermined workers’ pay and conditions and drastically worsened income inequality over the last thirty years. We offer our full support to the Ryanair pilots in their fight for better pay and conditions.’’