‘Aer Lingus snake’ to bite Irish staff

MANAGEMENT at Aer Lingus unveiled it as its “Greenfield” scheme, implying by the name that a new start was to be made. But unions, which were presented with the latest survival plan only on October 7, have dubbed it “the Aer Lingus Snake” amid fears that the former Irish national airline is uprooting by stealth in moves already in motion to set up new bases in the US and UK, which could open the door to wholesale outsourcing of offshore staff.

“No Irish need apply” is the tactic adopted in a shift that will bring surplus planes from the fleet of troubled Aer Lingus onto a Washington-Madrid route but with crews that must be American citizens or holders of Green Card employment permits.
In what has heightened Aer Lingus staff concerns that the struggling airline is setting up overseas operational bases so that lower cost offshore contract air crews can be employed at “local” employment terms rather than existing rates in Ireland, broad details of the shifts to the US and Britain emerged at a hearing by the Joint Transport Committee.
TDs and senators were perceptibly unsettled by the disclosure that Aer Lingus has joined in a 50-50 joint venture with United Airlines to fly the Washington-Madrid route from March, but that recruitment of Irish crews is virtually out of the question at a time when Aer Lingus is pressing for 670 jobs to be trimmed away in yet another streamlining programme.
In adverts, that have already appeared in the US, the joint venture has specified that pilots and cabin crew must be American citizens or hold US work permits. Under intense questioning from Joint Committee members, senior Aer Lingus management argued that some of the airline’s 530 pilots hold American citizenship or Green Cards and would therefore qualify for eight of the 16 pilots to be hired for the joint venture.
While Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs, Enda Corneille and human resources director, Michael Grealy, protested that the joint venture is “a separate legal entity”, Irish Airline Pilots Association leader, Captain Evan Cullen, told the hearing that his members took a very different view. Under new pilot contracts placed before the Transport Committee, “pilots would be self-employed”, which raised the spectre of outsourcing staff which the pilots have been to the fore in resisting. That charge was strongly supported by Labour TD Tommy Broughan, representing one of the heavy concentrations of Aer Lingus workers in the Dublin North East constituency. He accused Aer Lingus of adopting the Ryanair strategy of employing “multi-national staff spread over 50 jurisdictions – we are talking fantasy land. You are setting up a poor man’s Ryanair and it will end up that Ryanair will take you over,” he warned.
Captain Cullen also charged that on the proposed joint venture service on which Aer Lingus aircraft would be used, the different regulations under which Aer Lingus transatlantic flights are allowed to operate with two pilots while US operators are obliged to have three pilots in the cockpit would apply. That difference has been an established advantage for Aer Lingus over its competitors on the Atlantic, he told the hearing.
Pilots have been particularly angered by the Aer Lingus moves in light of the support which the group provided in fighting off repeated Ryanair takeover bids. Captain Cullen pointed out that besides taking salary cuts varying from 4% to 8% depending on rungs of the pay scale, pilots had formed a tailwind investment group to add a defensive shareholding in the airline, which amounted to €30million. That investment, taken out through loans and from savings, had lost 80% of its value. Yet the pilots were prepared to invest again in return for guarantees that the moves towards outsourcing would be dropped, the IALPA leader pledged.
Unions representing cabin crew pointed out that in advance of the crunch negotiations this week, Aer Lingus has already laid off 62 temporary cabin crew and over 100 others are facing the axe by the closure of the Shannon transatlantic cabin crew base. Yet at the same time, the airline is advertising for cabin crew in Washington.
Aer Lingus cabin crew representative, Barry Cunningham told the Transport Committee hearing that while his colleagues had taken 2008 pay cuts, which would save the airline €15million a year, the “Greenfield” scheme includes a new pay scale for cabin crew that involves reduction of the starting pay scale by 30% and what was described as  “ferocious slashing” of the upper scale. The scale agreed to in 2008 rises from a base of €23,800 to an uppermost level of €28,800. But the new scale proposed starts at €16,754 and only rises to a peak of €18,754.
“Aer Lingus is destroying cabin crew jobs. It is not a salary on which a person can build a career or a life. It could not be called a job,” Mr Cunningham declared.
With the latest Aer Lingus proposals freezing cabin crew salaries “for the rest of their careers”, assistant general secretary of the IMPACT trade union, Christina Carney told the hearing that  “no employer could stand over these rates” and warned, “it is quite clear that the Aer Lingus we know will lose its reputation if people are treated so badly”.
Ms Carney also told the Joint Committee of serious concerns about the consequences for an estimated 7,000 Aer Lingus pensioners of the “Greenfield” proposals to exit the airline’s defined pension scheme, “where the pension fund is short €35m”, she claimed, when urging the Transport Committee to give the pension issue an thorough airing at a future hearing.
When wrapping up the hearing, Transport Committee chair, former Deputy Frank Fahey expressed a hope that the “Greenfield” plan of management, which is dubbed “the Aer Lingus Snake” by unions, “will be a snake that can be cut off at the throat”.
Mr Fahey added, “While we appreciate that cost cutting and changed work practices are required, we would also want to see flexibility that would ensure that Irish crews are on Aer Lingus planes”.