Brennan will not step in to avert flight chaos

TRANSPORT Minister Seamus Brennan will not intervene to avert crippling strike action at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports as Aer Rianta and Aer Lingus staff prepare to disrupt air travel in a series of walkouts beginning this weekend.

Despite the prospect of significant passenger disruption when Aer Rianta begins its rolling strike action with a two-hour stoppage on November 4, Mr Brennan refused to submit to union pressure.

Aer Lingus management are also determined to face up to the unions in the dispute that will see cabin staff refuse to work this Thursday and next Monday.

While the airline is not prepared to indicate how much it will cost to hire fully crewed aircraft to keep most of their flights running, aviation experts have indicated that the cost would likely top €500,000 a day.

In the Aer Rianta dispute a spokesman for Mr Brennan confirmed that the impending disruption at the nation’s airports and threats of further industrial action when Ireland took over as EU presidency next year would not force a change of policy.

“The minister will not intervene,” said the spokesman.

“Government policy in relation to Aer Rianta is settled and while there is room to discuss staffing concerns there will be no discussion of the overall policy.”

Mr Brennan is expected to respond to concerns over job losses in a reply to a letter from ICTU’s David Begg in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party urged Mr Brennan to accept a proposal from trade unions representing Aer Rianta workers to enter talks with them on the future of the company.

Transport spokeswoman Róisín Shortall also pleaded with unions not to engage in strike action until a compromise had been reached.

“Minister Brennan should accept the invitation from the Aer Rianta group of unions for discussions without preconditions on the future of the company in order to avert industrial action at the company,” she said.

In the Aer Lingus dispute, the company’s chief operations officer, Seamus Kearney, confirmed yesterday that 26 flights scheduled for Thursday would be cancelled as a result of strike action by cabin crew.

However Mr Kearney insisted that the proposed changes in pay scales and productivity that the company was seeking would be implemented.

“The vast majority of people in Aer Lingus are committed to this transformation and have agreed to ongoing change for pay increases,” he said.

Mr Kearney called on the 1,000 IMPACT trade union members involved in the strike to abide by Labour Court requests to suspend industrial action.

“They are so determined to stop customers availing of still lower fares and more new routes, that they have taken the unprecedented step of refusing the request of the chairman of the Labour Court to suspend their strike action to give time to consider the court’s recommendation to settle the dispute,” he said.