This article is from page 2 of the 2008-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
A MEETING today of shop stew- ards at Aer Lingus seems unlikely to halt a stand-off between ground staff and management which could see workers suspended and flights under threat.
Aer Lingus management have set a deadline of 5pm today in Shan- non, Dublin and Cork for the ground crews to accept cost-cutting propos- AS
The 1,800 SIPTU workers em- ployed in ground operations, includ- ing check-in, loading and catering, voted to reject proposals negotiated between union and management by a three-to-one margin last February.
Since then, there have been some
negotiations, but now management has upped the ante by setting the oCer-Ke dbp ates
From 4am tomorrow, staff rostered to come on under the new arrange- ments will be expected to turn up and work with new practices or face Suspension.
The airline’s management has al- ready warned that they will close or outsource certain operations if this doesn’t happen.
Shop stewards representing the workers are due to meet at lunchtime today, but sources close to the two sides are not optimistic of any agree- ment being reached in time.
Management want the workers to Operate new rosters and practices as part of a masterplan to save the air-
line €20 million.
So far, agreement has been reached with most groups, including the pi- etsy
A spokesman for SIPTU said last night that the union’s members rejected the deal in February be- cause “they obviously felt it was too much. The plan includes things like 12 hour shifts, 4am shift starts and split shifts. This is a deal to save the airline €20 million and €10 mil- lion of that is to come from SIPTU members. While that is half the sav- ing and SIPTU represents half the workforce, in general, SIPTU mem- bers are not nearly as well paid as, say pilots, so it is a much bigger sac- rifice that 1s being asked of them.”
The union spokesman said that the
“fact that the company is making money and the top management has publicly said it is going to pay itself a big bonus is not helping matters.”
Last year, Aer Lingus Chief Ex- ecutive Dermot Mannion promised shareholders that he would imple- ment the staff cost savings from the beginning of 2008.
However, so far none of the pro- posed measures have materialised because of ongoing negotiations over new work practices and rostering.
SIPTU’s ground staff members had already voted to take industrial action if changes in working ar- rangements were introduced without agreement.
No-one could be contacted to com- ment in Aer Lingus.