Threatened strike forces Aer Lingus to cancel 25 scheduled flights

MORE THAN 25 scheduled flights have been cancelled by Aer Lingus as airline passengers prepare to face a winter of discontent with industrial action starting this weekend and further rolling strikes scheduled for November.

The cancelled Aer Lingus flights, both trans-Atlantic and European, were scheduled for Thursday.

Also yesterday, Aer Rianta unions stepped up their campaign against the break-up of the company, announcing a series of rolling strikes to begin next month.

Their strike plans follow moves by 1,000 Aer Lingus cabin crew to hold a two-day strike this bank holiday weekend. The 24-hour strikes, this Thursday and next Monday, will proceed unless the Labour Court issues recommendations that are acceptable to the cabin crew.

Aer Lingus management, which has already hired eight extra planes and crew to deal with the work-to-rule, promised to maintain scheduled services during the all-out strike.

IMPACT, the union representing the cabin crews, claims it will cost the company up to 5m to hire extra planes and cabin crew to cover the two strike days.

“We are surprised the company is prepared to pay this kind of money again when the dispute with the cabin crew could be settled for 1m,” said IMPACT cabin crew committee chairman Paul Blake.

However, an Aer Lingus spokesman described the 5m figure as rubbish and insisted the company viewed the issue so seriously it was willing to incur extra costs to keep services running.

The dispute, which has seen staff work to rule in recent weeks, arose over company demands for greater productivity in return for an outstanding 4% pay increase due under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).

A decision on what the next stage of industrial action will be is to be taken later this week. Unions are threatening to escalate their action in order to cause maximum disruption during Ireland’s EU presidency, which begins in January.

The Aer Rianta unions are calling for an independent assessment of Transport Minister Seamus Brennan’s plans to break up the company. But Mr Brennan last night refused to capitulate.

A spokesman for Mr Brennan said concerns over jobs could be discussed but stressed that government policy on Aer Rianta was already settled.