Mediator calls for meeting with Aer Lingus and unions

AER Lingus and staff unions will return to the National Implementation Body (NIB) this morning hoping the mediator has found some sort of formula which might avert two days of strike action next week.

It was unclear last night whether the NIB was calling the meeting to seek further information from Aer Lingus and its 1,800 SIPTU members on their positions on the airline’s €20 million Programme for Continuous Improvement 2007 document, whether it had formulated a recommendation based on a meeting held almost two weeks’ ago or whether it was making a fresh intervention in light of the distinct possibility of industrial action grounding up to 40,000 passengers next Tuesday and Friday.

This morning’s meeting comes 24 hours after embattled Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion faced a mass walkout from the first staff briefing session in Dublin Airport aimed at dissuading the SIPTU members from embarking on the disruptive action.

Mr Mannion had barely uttered “good morning” to 125 baggage handlers and check-in staff at Dublin Airport when all but one of them walked out.

The session had been called to enable airline management to impress on the workforce its intention to suspend any worker who takes part in stoppages next week. Later sessions were better attended, but the general impression was that the walkout was setting the tone for next week’s rolling strikes.

Following the mass exodus from the meeting, SIPTU issued a statement in which it insisted it had not orchestrated the action.

“The union is not involved in these meetings, were convened by management directly with employees, who used the occasion to express their own opposition to management proposals,” it said.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said as far as the airline is concerned the meetings were “good and frank exchanges”.

It appeared unlikely that further briefing sessions, scheduled for this morning in Cork and Shannon, will go ahead given the airline’s invite to the National Implementation Body.

Aer Lingus wants the workers to accept the introduction of the Programme for Continuous Improvement 2007 (PCI-07) which would affect workers’ pay scales, holiday entitlements and overtime payments.

The airline is under pressure from its investors to have that programme in place before the end of the year in order to improve its overall competitiveness.

Its decision to give all new employees and any who wish to move from temporary to permanent status PCI07 contracts has infuriated SIPTU which still remains vehemently opposed to a programme which, it claims, will mean cuts in pay of more than €4,000 a year for many and longer working hours.