Last-ditch talks to avert airline job losses
The airline will hold an extraordinary board meeting this afternoon at which management will outline how it intends to achieve €97m in savings in 2010. In October the company proposed to unions that figure be achieved with 676 job losses as well as job cuts (up to 40% according to pilot unions) and changes in pension arrangements, as well as ending certain routes.
However, when it became clear that cabin and pilot unions in particular were not going to sign up to that agenda and that talks on an alternative were failing, the company set yesterday as a deadline for worker representatives to propose an alternative. It said if no resolution was achieved by then, it would be forced to ground a number of long- and short-haul aircraft, meaning 200-300 more job losses in cabin and ground crews than the 676 already earmarked.
