Aer Lingus - more industrial action for Summer 2012?

aw

Due to the possible closure of their hangar at Shannon Airport...

Would this have much of an impact on Summer operations? It doesn't sound like they are gearing up for an all out strike.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0618/1224318139762.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/17/us-aerlingus-strike-idUSBRE85G0FT20120617

http://www.thejournal.ie/aer-lingus-strike-summer-trade-union-shannon-hangar-490468-Jun2012/

Irish Times wrote:

UNIONS REPRESENTING Aer Lingus workers have warned that industrial disruption this summer is “likely” as a result of management’s plans to move most of its maintenance division out of Shannon.

Aer Lingus workers at Shannon are to meet officials from the Unite, Siptu and TEEU unions tomorrow to discuss action they might take in the event of the airline deciding to exit the lease on the maintenance hangar there.

The feared exit could leave 55 Aer Lingus workers either redundant or facing a move to Dublin.

Union representatives last week presented management with a case outlining alternative means for the airline to achieve €1.5 million in savings it is seeking.

However, Unite said the unions’ case received a “frosty reception”.

“It now appears that the workers’ representatives, who were engaged in what they thought was an opportunity to find the savings necessary to protect their jobs, were not given a fair hearing,” said Unite’s regional officer Brian Gormley.

“It seems that Aer Lingus management were committed all along to divesting the lease of the Shannon hangar and moving the work to Dublin.”

A spokesman for Aer Lingus said negotiations with staff were ongoing.

“We are in consultation with staff and their representatives about the potential relocation of some of the maintenance operations from Shannon to Dublin, and, because we are in consultation, we have no further comment,” the spokesman said.

The lease on the hangar is held by the Dublin Airport Authority. Russia’s second biggest airline, Transaero, which recently acquired an aircraft maintenance company in Shannon, has been mooted as a possible new tenant.

Aer Lingus has been in negotiation with staff over the past two months in relation to its planned consolidation of its engineering operations in Dublin – a move that would substantially reduce the numbers employed at the maintenance division in Shannon.

At the moment the airline conducts maintenance of its long-haul fleet and elements of line maintenance at Shannon. However, most of its long-haul Airbus A330 aircraft are based at Dublin, resulting in “ferry flights” to and from Shannon when they need to undergo maintenance.

kub

The country is on the brink and the unions are at it again. Quite simply Aer Lingus is a business, like any other it has to make commerical decisions in order to survive.
The days of jobs for life are gone, it looks to me like the good guys at Shannon have a choice, move to Dublin or take redundancy and go working for that Russian company.
Thats not a bad choice, considering what people in the real world have to endure.

MuffinsDa

What is the minimum notice they have to give for industrial action?

(Flying long haul on Friday week via Schiphol with a shortish transfer time -90 mins- with first leg being EI so wondering if should start getting worried yet!)

A320

This is what now,about 10 years in a row at the same time every year,Unions would want to realise these idle threats drive business away

donvito99

A320 wrote: »

Unions would want to realise these idle threats drive business away

Unions aren't stupid and are well aware of this, they just put a different spin on their actions every time.

It is unfortunate that EI will inevitably lose face this summer, after some gains in recent months.

Delancey

Travelling public are heartily sick of constant industrial action at EI - never stops.

Tenger

Delancey wrote: »

Travelling public are heartily sick of constant industrial action at EI - never stops.

Both sides contribute to this.


One side agitates unrest while the other signs agreements only to repeatedly break their word.

homerjay2005

Tenger wrote: »

Both sides contribute to this.

Bulls*it...how come Ryanair never strike then?, its the Unions and the militant workforce.

ive flown with aerlingus once in the last 12 months as opposed to about 60 flights with Ryanair, my primary reason is the staff and unions at Aer Lingus.

i hope to god that if they are ever taken over, the first thing that is done is f*ck out the unions.

Unions have played their part in the death of this countries economy and its something that people ignore.

Stovepipe

@delancey, would you care to back that up? I'm an Aer Lingus engineer and I'm still waiting to be involved in my first industrial action after 16 years in the job. The cabin crew and pilots have done so, but not us, because the company has decided that it's best policy when dealing with the unions is to run roughshod over signed agreements. Ask the LRC why the Unions are constantly having to bring the company to the LRC, to get them to abide by agreements. In the case of the engineers and other staff in Shannon, the company cravenly sold the lease for the hangar out from under the staff without bothering to tell them because they knew full well that it would rightly arouse staff anger. Now, if you were one of those staff, would you uproot yourself and your family to move across the country in this economic climate, for a company that continuously breaches it's written promises?
regards
Stovepipe

Bearcat

Delancey wrote: »

Travelling public are heartily sick of constant industrial action at EI - never stops.

Bit of a sweeping statement Mr.Mod. :rolleyes:

gihj

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Bulls*it...how come Ryanair never strike then?, its the Unions and the militant workforce.

ive flown with aerlingus once in the last 12 months as opposed to about 60 flights with Ryanair, my primary reason is the staff and unions at Aer Lingus.

i hope to god that if they are ever taken over, the first thing that is done is f*ck out the unions.

Unions have played their part in the death of this countries economy and its something that people ignore.

I can handle being asked if i want to buy a scratch card a couple of times on a flight i can almost guarantee will get me to my destination.

What i don't like is constantly being at the whim of Aer Lingus staff,unions and management as to whether it's time for another strike.

I despair when i read some of the nonsense on the takeover thread dissing Ryanair.

2rkehij30qtza5

The amount of strikes really puts me off Aer Lingus. In recent years ive probably booked 4 Aer Lingus flights and the rest Ryanair. Out if the 4 Aer Lingus flights, two were cancelled due to industrial action. Really puts me off them

Stovepipe

Hi there,
@GGEE, how many ryanair flights did you lose because they cancelled it because the flight wasn't full? I lost one when they cancelled it for a "tech" fault. Being an insider, I knew who to ring. Not a thing wrong with the aircraft, sez a mate of mine, it's just not full enough. More EI flights are lost thru foreign ATC or other airport staff strikes than local strikes.
If our management had behaved honestly with the Shannon staff, then there would be no threat of strikes.The Shannon staff have been expecting the chop for a long time but they'd like to be treated with respect.Try and understand that people are afraid for their futures and would like to be kept informed, instead of hearing it on the news or on the internet.If you have an issue, write to Herr Mueller and see where it gets you.

regards
Stovepipe

Milan Cobian

IIRC correctly the only flights cans due to strikes in the last decade were a handful over cabin crew action a couple of years ago. Most were operated by hire-ins. EI operates about 1500 flights per week. So lets say over 500,000 flights in the last decade. With about 100 or so cancelled a couple of years ago. That's about 0.02%.

In recent years ive probably booked 4 Aer Lingus flights and the rest Ryanair. Out if the 4 Aer Lingus flights, two were cancelled due to industrial action. Really puts me off them

So 50% of your AL flights were cancelled in an era where a tiny fraction of 1% of flights were actually cancelled? Unlucky or bull****?

MuffinsDa

Stovepipe wrote: »

If our management had behaved honestly with the Shannon staff, then there would be no threat of strikes.

The management have no obligation to behave honestly with you. It's a private company. Many times in private companies that I've worked for, people go to office in the morning and they are told they are made redundant. That's the reality of private sector, you may try and comprehend that at some stage.

They have no obligation to consult you on their plans, it's their money, they can do whatever they want with it, and their relationship with you is clearly defined in employment laws and agreements. I doubt "behaving honestly and telling people of plans that may affect their performance and cause them to throw a wobbly well ahead of time" is part of their contract with you.

Bearcat

Unfortunely these are the times we live in. Senior Management in most private companies rule by fear and intimidation. Staff loyalty is a long finished thing of a dinosaur age. It favors management now to turn over staff keeping a core group in the inner sanctum of senior managent who reap the rewards of massive bonuses. This in turn feeds junior management into vicious walk over anyone merchants in a clamber to reach top management . They then reach the top having alienated themselves from the collegues over previous years to find it a lonely place.

My humble perspective.

Delancey

In answer to those accusing me of a sweeping statement - I cannot recall a recent year where there has not been flight disruption at EI due to industrial action - most recently cabin crew but also pilots and other staff ( I never said Engineers were involved ).
Pointing the finger at different groups misses the point - Aer Lingus cannot be considered reliable when it comes to industrial disruption , nor for that matter can others such as BA.

Delancey

Bearcat wrote: »

Bit of a sweeping statement Mr.Mod. :rolleyes:

My apologies - I forgot the rule that says moderators ( even in forums not their own ) are required to sit on the fence and post bland and banal comments that are careful to offend nobody.

Locker10a

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Bulls*it...how come Ryanair never strike then?, its the Unions and the militant workforce.

ive flown with aerlingus once in the last 12 months as opposed to about 60 flights with Ryanair, my primary reason is the staff and unions at Aer Lingus.

i hope to god that if they are ever taken over, the first thing that is done is f*ck out the unions.

Unions have played their part in the death of this countries economy and its something that people ignore.

Ryanair dont strik because they dont have a Union, but if they did have a union im sure they would strike because of their treatment.

With regard to to you avoiding Aer Lingus because of the staff and unions, i can tell you i do the complete opposit ! I avoid ryanair because of their shoddy treatment of staff (which im not getting into here) and fly with Aer Lingus because i know they arent fired for calling in sick and they are treated with decancy. Im not saying this is because they have unions, It is not impossible to treat staff well and run a sucessful company(of which there are many examples) without the need for unions and in a perfect world there would be no unions!

As for unions ruining the country and economy ! Well i did have to laugh out loud at that!!
Anyway before this thread decends into the depths i will end by saying i have travel plans with aer lingus over the summer and it is in my interest that strike is avoided, which it usually is , but my point is it most certainly takes two to tango both unions and managment!

homerjay2005

Locker10a wrote: »

Ryanair dont strik because they dont have a Union, but if they did have a union im sure they would strike because of their treatment.

With regard to to you avoiding Aer Lingus because of the staff and unions, i can tell you i do the complete opposit ! I avoid ryanair because of their shoddy treatment of staff (which im not getting into here) and fly with Aer Lingus because i know they arent fired for calling in sick and they are treated with decancy. Im not saying this is because they have unions, It is not impossible to treat staff well and run a sucessful company(of which there are many examples) without the need for unions and in a perfect world there would be no unions!

As for unions ruining the country and economy ! Well i did have to laugh out loud at that!!
Anyway before this thread decends into the depths i will end by saying i have travel plans with aer lingus over the summer and it is in my interest that strike is avoided, which it usually is , but my point is it most certainly takes two to tango both unions and managment!

if they staff are so unhappy, why dont they leave then? people seem to have this perception in ireland that they have a divine right to a job and do as little as possible for it and its supposed to be exactly as they want it.

Unions are a huge problem in Ireland, they have driven up the cost of employing people, driving up cost of living, made people lazy and cost this country billions.

Joe 90

Locker10a wrote: »

Ryanair dont strik because they dont have a Union, but if they did have a union im sure they would strike because of their treatment.

With regard to to you avoiding Aer Lingus because of the staff and unions, i can tell you i do the complete opposit ! I avoid ryanair because of their shoddy treatment of staff (which im not getting into here) and fly with Aer Lingus because i know they arent fired for calling in sick and they are treated with decancy. Im not saying this is because they have unions, It is not impossible to treat staff well and run a sucessful company(of which there are many examples) without the need for unions and in a perfect world there would be no unions!

As for unions ruining the country and economy ! Well i did have to laugh out loud at that!!
Anyway before this thread decends into the depths i will end by saying i have travel plans with aer lingus over the summer and it is in my interest that strike is avoided, which it usually is , but my point is it most certainly takes two to tango both unions and managment!

One of the few things my father and I agreed on was that the PS unions were the greatest long term threat to the long term future of Ireland. My father died in 1987.