Strike threat over Aer Rianta plans

A STRIKE is looming over the Government’s plans to break-up Aer Rianta’s central control over Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.

Unions are to ballot for industrial action from this week over fears that regional airports will not be able to survive on their own.

They also claim Aer Rianta’s break-up will be the first step towards privatisation of the country’s airports.

But Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has vowed to go ahead with his plans and insists Cork and Shannon airports need more autonomy if they are to develop.

The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, one of the main unions in airport business, voted yesterday to begin balloting for industrial action.

SIPTU and the other unions representing airport workers are thought to be preparing similar action.

TEEU eastern region secretary Arthur Hall said: “It makes absolutely no sense to break up a profitable company that is a jewel in the semi-State crown.

“But Seamus Brennan is a very determined man and when we met him to discuss the future of Aer Rianta, he told us he would sell everything, if he wanted, except the runways,” Mr Hall said.

He said if the regional airports were allowed run down, it would have serious knock-on effects for employment throughout Cork and the mid-west.

Meanwhile, Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg called on the Government to come clean on its privatisation plans.

“Go put what you want on the table. The one thing we do not want is to be drip-fed a series of privatisations over a period of time in a series of crisis situations,” Mr Begg said.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte also said the Government had to be more open about its policy plans and called for proposed reductions in corporation tax to be frozen given the hostile economic climate.

In a separate development, the TEEU’s 40,000 members are to enter a strategic alliance with SIPTU, creating the largest union block in the public sector, with 240,000 representatives.

TEEU general secretary Owen Wills said the alliance would allow both unions to provide better services to members and enhance the prospects for trade union growth in the private sector.