This article is from page 20 of the 2008-10-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
A PROPOSAL to cut 300 Aer Lin- gus jobs in Shannon Airport, has left staff worried for their future and also led a local TD to suggest that the distinguishable green uniform is “a thing of the past” in Shannon.
Shocked staff were told by union representatives that the airline was proposing to out-source all jobs in Shannon Airport with the exception of maintenance. This would include cabin crew, ground handling and cargo staff.
In a two and a half hour meeting with management in Dublin, staff union reps were told the cuts were a result of oil costs, the economy and softening bookings. Up to 300 pen- sionable jobs are proposed to go in Shannon.
“2009 is predicted to be a bad year. The Americans are not travelling. We see that ourselves,’ said one staff member.
“We have seen this before in 2001 and 2004,” said another.
The company will be offering vol- untary redundancies and crews will
be out-sourced and supported by bas- es in New York, Boston and Dublin.
In total 1,500 jobs are proposed to be out-sourced and inevitably lost to Aer Lingus. Jobs will also go in Cork and Dublin.
Aer Lingus management set a dead- line of November for the implemen- tation of the ©74 million cost-cutting programme including a €©50 million cut from staff costs.
They also said €14 million would have to come from a reduction in ad- vertising and distribution costs, air- port costs and professional fees, and
€10m from reducing the airline’s long haul aircraft fleet from nine to eight.
“We are going to continue fighting. Even to save 100 jobs,” said one up- set worker.
Before the official announcement was made, the union’s general presi- dent, Jack O’Connor had appealed to the Government to establish a “threshold of decency” in the avia- tion business where, he said workers wages were being driven through the ground.
Speaking at the union’s regional
conference in Tralee, he predicted the union would mount “the siffest resistance possible” to any attempt to outsource the 1,500 Aer LIngus jobs.
He added that what is happening in Aer Lingus could no longer be isolated from what is happening in aviation in Ireland in general and it would feel the pinch.
“It is ironic that against a back- ground of billions being spent to bail out the bankers…that people who are paying taxes are being fed to the wolves,” he told the conference.