Cabin crew outsourcing is a disgrace
The airline boss did not have the courage to face his own employees and, instead, dispatched his lieutenants, the deputy chief executive and the head of the cabin crew department to deliver the bad news to the loyal workers at Shannon.
Having failed to seek a resolution through the normal industrial channels, and having chosen not to utilise the state mechanisms, such as the Labour Relations Commission, Aer Lingus have opted to close the base and outsource the work. Aer Lingus is not the cash-strapped company it once was and has been returned to profitability largely on the backs and sacrifices made by its workers.
The industry norm is that Boeing 757 aircraft are operated with between five and six cabin crew, when flying across the Atlantic.
A team of four across a two-class cabin would mean a huge workload and little time for cabin crew to avail of a meal-break on a long-haul flight.
Further challenges would be presented in the event of a medical emergency, situations that frequently occur and are dealt with by cabin crew when flying by night. There is a reason no other airline does it.
Legitimate concerns over the planning and operation of the 757 aircraft (including a request for in-flight procedures) have been cast aside, and ultimatums have been issued by the company instead of meaningful negotiations.
Mueller and his management team have now pulled the trigger.
Instead of ordering the crew to work with a stipulated complement, they simply elected to outsource the work.
They have chosen to use cabin crew’s own work as a commodity, which is highly cynical in the current climate.
This is contemptuous.
To outsource work in the pursuit of cheaper labour and a higher profit margin is a disgrace.
It echoes the Irish Ferries dispute in 2005, which laid off workers only to replace them with cheaper labour. That situation was resolved and legislation introduced — the Protection of Employees Act 2007 — such was the reaction at that time.
What Aer Lingus are doing now is a serious parallel of the Irish Ferries dispute and is anathema to decency itself.
If Aer Lingus was so inclined, there is still time to resolve the outstanding issues and reverse their decision. Negotiations, under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission and/or referral to the Labour Court, are just some of the options available in the absence of agreement at a local level. Aer Lingus is an Irish company that carries the national emblem on its planes’s tails, wherever they go. The Irish are known for their sense of fair play and decency.
It is time that Aer Lingus extended that concept, and those of their own brand values, to their own staff. Shannon cabin crew remain ready, willing and able to operate any new transatlantic service from Shannon.
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