Tag Archives: dispute

Ireland South MEP and member of the EU Transport committee Deirdre Clune has welcomed cross party support from other MEPs in her bid to pressure the European Commission into taking immediate action in the case of Norwegian Airs bid to fly to the US from Shannon and Cork. In a letter to Commissioner Bulc, Ireland South MEPs from across the political divide have asked the Commissioner to trigger the arbitration process in the license application process without delay, as well as setting out the timeline and procedure for this. Speaking as the Norwegian Airlines license application issue rumbles on, MEP Clune said the Commissioner must act now and begin the process of arbitration in the dispute, whose delay is in direct breach of the US-EU Open Skies agreement, so that the flights can begin operating from Cork and Shannon Airports. “In July 2016, the European Commission said that it would initiate arbitration proceedings against the US Department of Transport due …

By Owen Ryan THE lives of Clare’s fire fighters are being put at risk following a decision by the County Council made on Monday, SIPTU has claimed. On Monday at its meeting in Kilkee the Council adopted a new Fire and Emergencies Operations Plan in accordance with Section 26 of the Fire Services Act. It was passe without debate. In a statement on Wednesday night SIPTU blasted the move. “This decision means that elected members have, without any discussion of information, placed the lives of fire fighters at great risk and endangered the public. All Fire Stations in the county, along with families, are expressing extreme anger at how public representatives could have taken such a vote and indeed why.” The SIPTU statement outlined the fire fighters objections with what they say the plan will mean. “The extreme safety risk arises from the proposition to now send only four crews on a Fire appliance where the national and international best …

THE prospect of a strike at Shannon Airport has moved closer, as a ballot on industrial action showed a massive majority of SIPTU members favouring it, due to a long-running dispute over pensions. Workers at Dublin and Cork airports, as well as Aer Lingus, have also voted for industrial action but SIPTU pension policy adviser, Dermot O’Loughlin, said the ballot of Shannon Aviation Authority members was particularly one-sided. On Tuesday he said, “There were record turnouts and results in Cork and Dublin but they were trumped beyond belief in Shannon. Ninety-eight per cent have voted for taking industrial action and 96% said their preference was for strike action.” He said there had been a 90% turnout and that both that figure and the resounding vote in favour of strike action were “amazing”. Workers at the three State airports and at Aer Lingus are all covered by the Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme, which has a deficit of a reported €780 million. …