Aer Lingus workers threaten strike

Aer Lingus faces widespread disruption to its flights over the summer because of the airline’s plans to sell off its Shannon hangar and force 55 maintenance staff to take redundancy or relocate to Dublin.

A meeting of workers is being held in Shannon at noon tomorrow to discuss the response to the plan by management to sell the hangar before the end of the month.

Unite Regional Officer Brian Gormley said last night he could see little alternative to early strike action by engineering crew at Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports.

If they withdraw their labour, Aer Lingus would be forced to ground planes.

Describing the prospect of industrial action as “unfortunate”, Mr Gormley insisted the workers affected had the right to protect their jobs. Any compulsory redundancies he said, would be totally unacceptable.

“There is a strong belief among members that unless we take action immediately, we will have no chance of reversing a decision which will see people being forced to take redundancy or being uprooted to Dublin,” he said. “It is very hard to see how strike action can be avoided at this stage.”

Over the past two months, unions have been involved in detailed talks with senior management on how best to yield savings of €1.5m to try and avoid the sale.

“It now appears that the workers representatives who were engaged in what they thought was an opportunity to find the savings necessary to protect their jobs, were sold a pup,” Mr Gormley said.

“It looks like Aer Lingus management were committed all along to divesting the lease of the Shannon hangar and moving the work to Dublin.”

He said as staff discovered initial plans were still being pursued, they contacted their unions — Unite, Siptu and the TEEU — to ask them to resist any attempt by the company to impose compulsory redundancies.

“Those affected and their trade union representatives presented a case to management this week which would yield the savings sought but were given a frosty reception,” said Mr Gormley.

“The workers’ plan was verified by external consultants and had earlier been welcomed in public by Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller who praised them for their endeavour and ingenuity in attempting to maintain the facility through identified cost savings.

“It now appears that the workers representatives who were engaged in what they thought was an opportunity to find the savings necessary to protect their jobs, were not given a fair hearing.

“Aer Lingus workers have called on their respective unions Unite, Siptu and the TEEU to resist any attempt by the company to impose compulsory redundancies on the Shannon workforce,” he said.