Brennan must come clean with unions

IF Transport Minister Séamus Brennan harboured any illusions about the ease with which unions can disrupt the country’s transport system, they were rudely dispelled yesterday as staff at Aer Rianta, the state-owned company he plans to break up, effectively brought the country’s main airports to a halt for a brief but telling period.

By now, he should be under no doubt about either the intensity of worker antagonism towards his proposal or the extent to which trust has broken down between unions and government.

It was inevitable that air travellers and holidaymakers would be caught up in the row and they became the unwitting victims of union anger as more than 900 workers at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports attended information sessions staged by SIPTU, which represents more than 70% of staff at the state-owned company. More than 500 SIPTU members turned out for the mass meetings at Dublin; 300 at Shannon, and 120 at Cork.