Plea for airport and Aer Lingus staff not to strike

The Government has urged management and staff at the Dublin Airport Authority and Aer Lingus workers to make sacrifices, compromise, and negotiate in order to prevent industrial action which could cause chaos for thousands of air travellers at the end of next month.

At the start of August the group of unions representing the 4,500 staff in both companies warned their members will begin industrial action on Sept 20 if no progress is made on their troubled pension scheme.

That scheme has a deficit of almost €750m and there are fears over its ability to pay out.