Prospect of airport strike recedes

THE prospect of strike action at Shannon Airport has receded this week, following a meeting between SIPTU and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar on Tuesday.
Following the announcement of the separation of Shannon from the Dublin Airport Authority, workers voted for strike action, demanding guarantees on their future following the split.
However, speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, SIPTU official Tony Carroll said he felt the meeting had gone quite well and they are expecting to get some assurances in writing.
“He’s to send us a letter giving us the answers to what we asked him about. I can’t say I’m optimistic until I see the letter but I’d imagine that a lot of what we’re looking for will be in it,” said Mr Carroll.
He said Minister Varadkar was relatively positive during the discussions. “He said he would get the letter to us because we’re meeting our members tomorrow [Thursday]. I told him we’d need it by then if we were to take it into consideration.”
At the separation announcement earlier this month, Minister Varadkar said that while staff will transfer on the same conditions, long-term guarantees cannot be given.
“The only undertaking I can give is what’s in the legislation is that the staff transfer on the same terms and conditions as they have presently. Obviously, any changes have to be negotiated and it’s the case all the time across all of the semi-states and the public service that terms and conditions are being discussed. It’s certainly the case in the public service. It’s the case at the moment in Cork Airport but what happens here is that all of the staff transfer on the same terms and conditions.”
As he alluded to, there are cuts being sought at Cork, which is making larger losses than Shannon, even though it has more passengers. In October, it was announced that at least 32 redundancies will be sought at Cork, on a voluntary basis.
The airport also indicated there may potentially be pay cuts, as it seeks to cut costs.
In a statement, Cork Airport director Niall McCarthy said management are also seeking an overhaul of rosters, to benchmark pay scales against other aviation businesses and a review of non-payroll costs.
Mr Carroll said there have been no explicit threats of redundancies or pay cuts to Shannon workers, while under the DAA, “no one knows what might have happened”.