Aer Lingus staff meet to consider strike action

AER LINGUS ground staff meet this morning to decide whether to embark on strike action in protest at the airline’s decision to press ahead with controversial cost-saving measures.

If the action proceeds thousands of passengers could be grounded over the summer months, the airline’s busiest period.

The 1,800 staff’s union SIPTU wrote to the company two weeks ago demanding it lift its freeze on a 2.5% pay increase due to the workers under the Towards 2016 pay deal and a further 5% due in pay increments.

Aer Lingus withheld the payments when the staff refused to co-operate with the its Programme for Continuous Improvement document which was due to save the company €10m annually through changes to staff rosters and entitlements.

Similar savings have already been agreed by the cabin crew members.

Protracted negotiations between SIPTU and the company resulted in a compromise “flexibility and mobility agenda”, which the union actually recommended to its members.

However, twice they voted against the new deal. The second time, while the majority of SIPTU members voted in favour of the deal, whole sections — most notably in loading — voted against, meaning the whole deal fell.

Following that decision, the union wrote to the company demanding the pay increases.

However, yesterday Aer Lingus wrote back to the union telling it that it intended to press ahead with the cost savings “with immediate effect” in the areas that had voted in favour.

Those were amalgamated stores, catering, cargo, CRM, Cork station, Dublin station cleaning, Dublin maintenance operatives, Shannon station, Shannon maintenance operatives, Shannon cargo, IT, transport and post, and all clerical staff.

It said it would review those sections at the end of June and if they had complied satisfactorily, they would receive the owed increases.

“In both the Dublin and Shannon loading areas, where proposals were rejected by an overwhelming majority, we continue to review our position in relation to these areas over the coming weeks. Therefore we will not be implementing the flexibility and mobility agenda at this point and equally not processing the [Towards] 2016 and annual increments,” it said.

Last night, SIPTU said it had received the letter and would meet at 9am to discuss the implications.

It is expected however, that all areas of the union will collectively reject the airline’s actions triggering an almost certain industrial relations dispute that will ground the airline.