Airport strike threat

PEOPLE intending to fly from Shannon on November 19 with Aer Lingus are facing possible disruptions resulting from industrial action.

 

After talks broke down between unions and management, unions announced their intention to take industrial action.

The four unions concerned outlined their position on Tuesday. “Aer Lingus unions met to discuss their response to last week’s decision by Aer Lingus management to walk away from talks aimed at saving the pension incomes of its staff.

“IMPACT, SIPTU, TEEU and Unite will today serve notice of a two hour stoppage between 10am and 12 noon on Monday, November 19. During that time, members of the unions will attend information meetings at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.

“The unions stressed that any disruption to passengers or businesses on November 19 will be solely due to the decision of Aer Lingus management to stop talking to staff representatives about their future retirement incomes. There will be no disruption on November 19 if Aer Lingus management agrees to re-enter the negotiations and attend hearings at the Labour Court.

“Representatives at today’s meeting expressed anger at Aer Lingus’s refusal to attend the Labour Court. They said there was a double standard in ministerial statements of support for their decision after ministers recently strongly criticised a consultants association for refusing to attend a recent Labour Court hearing.”
The statement also said that the Labour Relations Commission will be asked to reconvene negotiations between the DAA and the unions.

Clare TD Pat Breen said everyone would lose out in the event of industrial action going ahead. “While indications are that agreement can be struck between the unions and the DAA (DAA staff are also part of the same pension scheme) talks between Aer Lingus management and staff are deadlocked.

“There have been various estimates as to the extent of the deficit which needs to be bridged and while any solution must be affordable, I have no doubt if both sides sit back down around the table a solution can be found.

“Aer Lingus, the travelling public or the Aer Lingus staff themselves will not be best served by grounding flights on November 19. All industrial relations mechanism of the State must be exhausted so that strike action can be averted and I would appeal to both sides to make immediate contact with the Labour Relations Commission so that a date can be set and talks resumed as soon as possible.”

He said he understood workers are very concerned about the situation. “It is very understandable that workers at the airline would be worried about the situation regarding their pensions. Like many other Irish workers who are members of defined benefit schemes, they find that those schemes have insufficient money now to meet the pension promises, which were made to members of the scheme.

“The lack of clarity on how the pension deficit for existing staff and those on deferred pensions who are members of the Irish Airlines Superannuation, including Aer Lingus and DAA staff at Shannon Airport, is to be addressed is a source of much concern for those employees for quite some time now and it is an issue which will have to be resolved.”

Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley called on Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to take action.

“In September strike action was only narrowly averted and at the time I called on Minister Leo Varadkar to meet all sides to try and reach some sort of compromise. Instead he has let the situation slide and now we are again faced with the very real threat of a hugely damaging strike.

“No one is denying that this is a complicated situation but all parties in this dispute seem to have hit a brick wall. Talks at the LRC haven’t resolved the situation and now it is imperative that the minister becomes involved.”

He said the dispute is “a matter of vital national importance” and that action from the minister is needed “sooner rather than later”.