News Information
News Summary:
The cabin crew branch of IMPACT trade union will meet Aer Lingus management tomorrow to discuss in detail the company’s plan to impose 230 compulsory redundancies. The union will then consult with cabin crew members in each of the three Aer Lingus bases (Dublin, Cork and Shannon) over the coming days.News Content:
The airline’s announcement this afternoon was not surprising, as the threat of compulsory redundancies was made repeatedly during the negotiation process and while the branch balloted on the cost saving proposals last week.
The latest developments present a very serious challenge to cabin crew workers; however, the union will continue to make efforts to secure jobs and working conditions. The union had recommended the cost saving proposals on the basis that they would have minimised job losses, and help sustain the future of the airline. But IMPACT also acknowledged that aspects of the cost saving proposals would be very difficult for members to accept.
One of the difficulties with the proposals was that they had been tabled barely a year (November 2008) after cabin crew had agreed to substantial cost saving measures, then valued by Aer Lingus at €15 million. This had followed €8 million worth of savings agreed in 2007, as well as a succession of cost saving deals dating back to September 2001, all of which impacted negatively on earnings and working conditions.
In this context, suggestions that cabin crew had sought, or were somehow seeking a ‘sweetheart deal’ are both wrong and extremely unhelpful.
The union’s priority now is to consult with cabin crew members in order to agree how best to move forward on the issue, while acknowledging that the available time to broker a solution is extremely limited.
