83

In a context a priori hostile to trade unionism and collective bargaining, this contribution seeks to understand how trade unionists and some workers in Belgium have managed to embed the Irish airline Ryanair in the Belgian collective labour relations system. Based on long-term presence in the field (2011-2022) and repeated interviews with actors, our findings show that the neoliberal transnational corporation, of which Ryanair is the archetype, does not de facto exclude the possibility of a collective, autonomous and conflictual industrial citizenship. Conversely, some features of the airline’s low-wage, anti-union production model have been mobilised and instrumentalised by employees and trade unionists to establish union representation within the Belgian subsidiary. More broadly, this strategic adaptation of trade unionism to the neoliberal configuration of the corporation contributes to debates on the renewal or recomposition of trade unionism in Western Europe.