Airport unions look set for strike

ANGRY Aer Rianta unions look set to revert to strike action again today after they meet Department of Transport officials in Dublin.

The workers are opposed to the break-up of Aer Rianta because they claim it will lead to major job losses and that Shannon and Cork will not be commercially viable.

The Aer Rianta workers deferred their strike action on Monday night after a long meeting with Department officials, where they were given an undertaking that everything would be on the table when they would reconvene on Friday, SIPTU worker director Peter Dunne claimed.

They were assured by Department officials no moves would be made to provoke an already highly sensitive situation, said Mr Dunne, but the next day Transport Minister Seamus Brennan stated publicly he was pressing ahead with the Aer Rianta break-up.

“The Aer Rianta workers feel cheated and betrayed by the minister because they only deferred their strike action because they understood everything, including the break-up of the company, would be on the table on Friday.”

The minister’s spokesman rejected claims that the workers had been betrayed. It was made perfectly clear to the Aer Rianta unions on Monday that the break-up of the company was not up for negotiation, he said. “They were told that the implementation of the break-up was up for discussion, like how the debt would be transferred and the sharing of services.”

It was also made clear to the Aer Rianta unions again that the break-up would not lead to any jobs losses, said the minister's spokesman.

Mr Dunne said the Department reassured them last March they had not carried out any economic analysis on the impact of the break-up.

Yet Labour leader Pat Rabbitte revealed in the Dáil on Wednesday that a PricewaterhouseCooper (PWC) report commissioned by the Department showed Shannon and Cork would not be viable alone.

However, the spokesman said the PWC report had not been commissioned by them last March. They first asked Aer Rianta to provide separate economic projections for the performance of Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports up to 2006 and one PWC staff member was asked to carry out an analysis. “He said that unless the debt was removed from Shannon and Cork there would be a question mark over their viability and the minister has decided to make these two airports debt free before the break-up,” he said.