O’Leary backs rival in roster dispute
Usually no friend of Aer Lingus despite its major minority shareholding in the company, the Ryanair boss said for once he was “foursquare” behind the rival airlines’ management and the board “in trying to ensure the defeat of cabin crew union IMPACT”.
The union’s members are refusing to work new rosters introduced by Aer Lingus on January 17 which increase average annual block hours to 850 hours per crew member. The union says its members are willing to increase the hours but not in the way imposed by the airline at that point. Management have taken more than 200 cabin crew off the payroll and has started disciplinary proceedings which could see the relevant staff sacked in a matter of days.
“If management roll back on this Aer Lingus will be destroyed. If they blink and go back into the useless ‘machinery of the state’ IMPACT will keep them there for months on end,” said Mr O’Leary.
“(Christoph) Mueller is right when he says the time for talking is over.
“We have cabin crew who work 19 (flight) hours and work harder than Aer Lingus cabin crew. We also have 3,000 applications from people who want to work with us. Aer Lingus should come out with that information. They could kill off a strike by publishing the rosters and showing that Aer Lingus staff are only working 18 (flight) hours a week. Most of the crew are only working 3-4 days a week. Very few are working five days.”
He said most airlines, including Ryanair, in Europe were working 900 hours or 19 flight hours a week or more.
He blamed political interference during the Bertie Ahern years for the situation Aer Lingus found itself in.
“As soon as Aer Lingus gets itself out the financial crisis, the unions start screwing around,” he said.
“It is a legacy of the Bertie Ahern era that needs to be dealt with. This is a highly-paid, not overworked staff refusing to honour an agreement on which 93% voted in favour.”
Mr O’Leary said if Aer Lingus can see its current stance through and “sort out the unions” the share price and value would rebound.
In an attempt to maintain service to passengers Aer Lingus has been leasing aircraft and crew from a number of airlines including Ryanair.
IMPACT spokesman Bernard Harbor said: “The company has put over 200 cabin crew off duty even though they are willing to work. It has its own expensive planes on the tarmac while it spends at least €400,000 a day hiring external aircraft and crews. It has said it is unwilling to talk even though we have said we’d welcome Labour Court intervention.
“And it has gone back on its earlier promise that flight schedules would be maintained,” he added.
However, Mr O’Leary dismisses IMPACT’s figures.
“Aer Lingus is not paying €40,000 for a return flight,” he said. “The flights to the UK are being done for less than a quarter of that.”
Yesterday, Aer Lingus was forced to cancel 14 flights because of the ongoing dispute and it said it anticipates further cancellations affecting up to 10% of its schedule over the coming days.
