LTAI / Airmotive- What's going on?

ScabbyLeg

Was surprised not to find a thread on this already. Correct me if I'm wrong!

LTAI workers reject Labour Court proposals

Seems like complete madness to me? Granted, they say workers rejected the terms by a narrow margin, but have they no sense? Is the company fairly unionised like SRT was, anyone got any background information? If Lufthansa Technik say that LTAI need to agree to the new terms in order to receive €40m investment in the coming years, and the alternative is the eventual winding down of the complete operation, it sounds like a very shortsighted decision to reject the offer... but I'd be interested to know what cuts the company wanted.

Anyone got more information on the story, or views, opinions?

Payton

The main sticking point is that the company LTAI is making money unlike SRT, so why try and fix something thats not broken. They are put under the treath of the V2500 engine being taken away if a "deal" is not accepted. Part of the deal is that the shift allowance which is 20% they wanted to give 5% then upped it to 10% then the labour court "offered" 12.5%. Another part is that they want to send people home for up to 5 wks with pay.....and when they are "busy" you stay back when they want you to and if your face fits!
It also opens the door for the company to access to the whole plant agreement pensions, sick pay, contractors, pay scales, and thats just for the time being.
What happens next year when the staff are asked to take a reduction in their pay? "we'll move the engine to hamburg". How many treats can the staff take?
But bear in mind the company is in the running for SRT and there was nothing metioned that the €40M was going to be invested in the Rathcoole plant, probably invest it in a plant over by the airport......
Remember the company is not lossing money they have never lost money since they took over the Rathcoole plant.

FlutterinBantam

Biggest mistake in business.

Just because a company is making money, don't change.

Tesco don't believe it

Ryanair don't believe it .

Brian Cowen believed it, and look where we are now.

murfie

on the verge wrote: »

What happens next year when the staff are asked to take a reduction in their pay? .

The question should be more along the lines what happens now, they are going to lose their jobs. I would prefer to keep my job with conditions than be on the dole. Let them keep refusing the plan put forward by Lufthansa Technik and it wont matter what happens next year, they wont have a job.

Payton

Well I beleive the company and unions have entered talks which is a good sign, Having worked for a multi-national myself who left this country and we went through the same thing, If you dont play our game we'll take our work elsewhere!!. But at what stage do you say stop? Before you lose everything before you lose al your rights. Im not a miliant but I beleive in being payed a fair days pay for a fair days work without the conditions that you have being eroded. A lot of companies are jumping on the band wagon during these times and I could understand if the companies where losing money but in this case they are not, granted times are hard.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/0311/lufthansa.html

diverdriver

I worked there for a long time when it was owned by Aer Lingus. Even though it was a new set up it brought over some bad habits from Aer Lingus. However it did work well. Everyone played the game. The management made 'impossible' demands. The workers demanded changes. The unions got involved, made recommendations. This was rejected by management who issued protective notice while the union members voted to strike. Everyone went to the Labour court who compromised and it was narrowly voted for by the workforce however begrudgingly.

It seems the game has been derailed now. But all is not lost, usually a sensible arrangement is made. There is one difference now however. Lufthansa is not Aer Lingus. There is no emotional attachment and no political pressure to keep the place going. They can easily cut and run.

It isn't relevant that LTAI was profitable until now. Remaining profitable into the future is what counts. I suspect there is a bit of over capacity in MRO business at the moment. They have to stay competitive. When I was there there were 600 jobs, the market disappeared and 200 redundancies were offered, which is when I got out. The situation is very similar at the moment. Lufthansa doesn't need LTAI but the workers need their jobs.

The aviation business is tough and even profitable operations are shut down. It so international the domestic consideration rarely enter into it. Witness SRT.

I suspect common sense will prevail. I hope so.