Air cabin crews strike out on a wave

AS strikes go, the sea of green cabin crew members stretched along the entire length of the departures ramp of Dublin Airport was a surprisingly upbeat affair.

As the 500 protesters marched past the terminal building, bemused travellers were treated to what is surely a first for industrial relations: Mexican waves of placards rolled up and down the picket line in a display of perfect co-ordination at odds with the seriousness of the situation.

As the overwhelmingly blonde parade snaked past, more than one taxi driver commented on the higher than usual standard of ‘talent’ involved in this particular work stoppage compared with the less glamorous picketer traditionally associated with strikes.

But the bizarre display was not appreciated by all inside the busy terminal building.

Although Aer Lingus managed to accommodate the vast majority of its 20,000 passengers yesterday, the additional staff deployed at the company’s sales and reservations desk were under increasing pressure as a steady queue of frustrated and stranded passengers continued to form.

Diane Keenan-Hayes and her husband, Michael, from Boston were to fly home on Wednesday morning for the funeral of Diane’s favourite uncle who had passed away on Tuesday. But after a five-hour wait in bad weather, the captain informed passengers that a crew could not be found to man the plane.

“We were sitting on the plane for five hours yesterday and everybody is telling us different stories. Some got free flights and hotels, some had to pay. The company told everybody different things lots of which was lies. They treated us terribly,” said Diane.

On the same cancelled flight, Rob Babcock from Cape Cod in Massachusetts, was also critical of Aer Lingus but was trying to remain calm, he had a faulty defibrillator fitted which was due to be replaced in Boston today.

“You keep getting the runaround. Everybody says a different thing and the line they told us to call shut down at 8pm last night. It was jammed. Nobody could get through,” he said.

Mr Babcock was offered a British Airways flight to Heathrow last night and was left to foot his own hotel bills in London until a connecting flight to Boston becomes available today. “They told us that if we didn’t take that option there was no other available flight until October 31,” he said.

But the mood was probably best summed up by one of the senior Aer Lingus staff desperately trying to accommodate everyone as tempers and tears ebbed just below the surface.

“Get them out anyway at all. We’ll worry about return flights later,” she told a stressed out colleague.

Expect more of the same on Monday, minus the Mexican wave.