Industrial action imminent at Aer Lingus?

AER Lingus’ cabin crew, including those based in Shannon, are likely to vote in favour of industrial action in protest against proposed changes to work practices.
A ballot on industrial action (which is set to take the form of a work to rule) is already underway among cabin crew members. While it was expected that a result would be available next Monday, a representative of the union said that it is now more likely to be next Wednesday, due to the bank holiday this week.
Niall Shanahan of Impact trade union said a vote in favour of industrial action is being recommended.
He said the airline is trying to strip away around 30 rules relating to hours of work. “Under the worst-case scenario, someone could be working for 60 hours over the course of seven days and we want to ensure that can’t happen,” he said.
Mr Shanahan said that the company want staff to be in the air for 850 hours a year and said the union are amenable to that but believe that existing rules don’t have to be stripped away for it to happen.
In a statement, the company said that the decision to ballot is “extremely regrettable”, while it claimed it had “the means to deal with every outcome”.
Commenting on the situation at the airline, Clare TD Joe Carey said the Mid-West cannot afford an industrial crisis at Aer Lingus.
“Visitor numbers to Ireland are down one-quarter from where they were last May with large declines in the numbers travelling from Britain and America. The tourist industry faces a real battle for survival in the coming 12 months. The Government’s response has been to set up another task force to address the decline in visitors. Yet we know in the Mid-West what happens when this Government sets up a task force. Nothing. For example, the Mid-West Task force Report, the recommendations of which, if implemented, would have provided for marketing of the region, is still gathering dust on a shelf somewhere in Government buildings.
“We simply cannot afford any disruption to air links into and out of the Mid-West at the moment. I would encourage all sides in the dispute to sit down and work out an implementation of the cost-cutting plan in a way that does not affect customers and tourists. What we need now is for a Government-appointed mediator to intervene before this dispute escalates. Every effort must be made to ensure this matter is resolved swiftly. Ireland and the Mid-West must remain open for business,” Deputy Carey said.