Strike trigger pulled again Aer Lingus

Aboutime

I was just about to book some flights with Aer Lingus ,great prices at the moment..
Then this morning I hear there is a possibility of strike action during the Summer!!!
Am not to going to take the chance now.
This idea of threatening strike action surely should be kept for major issues and only in extreme circumstances,or at least keep quiet about it until they are sure it will go ahead.
There has to be an adverse effect on business due to this threat,thereby losing customers,thereby losing valuable business ,which is surely badly needed to pay for the demands of those working there.
Pulling the strike trigger too soon and too often ,much as I loath Ryanair,I'll be booking with them.

conor_ie

I'm flying transatlantic with them at the end of june... so we'll have to wait and see what happens..

rockonollie

Aboutime wrote: »

There has to be an adverse effect on business due to this threat,thereby losing customers,thereby losing valuable business

Which is exactly what the Unions want to happen........

I'm due to fly with them in June for a wedding, so once again, need to wait an see

bladebrew

Why do the unions want to lose business?
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/aer-lingus-cabin-crew-vote-for-industrial-action-630084.html
I was looking at booking a flight with them to Europe in June, but Ryanair are getting my money now, I can't risk them idiots going on strike again.

rockonollie

bladebrew wrote: »

Why do the unions want to lose business?
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/aer-lingus-cabin-crew-vote-for-industrial-action-630084.html
I was looking at booking a flight with them to Europe in June, but Ryanair are getting my money now, I can't risk them idiots going on strike again.

Unions want the company to lose business because that's their only weapon. They are trying to get the company to give in to their demands, if they take a course of action that in no way harms the company, then why would the company even negotiate with them........Aer Lingus start losing money, they will be pressed to find a resolution as soon as possible.....the longer it takes, the more money they lose.

Aboutime

Then it would seem ,either way the company will lose business as people decide not to take a gamble by booking Aer Lingus.

Strike action and the treat of strike action should be kept to a minimum,and perhaps kept within the confines of both the company and the union,not letting the public know,as it ensures they move to book with another company.
Seems like putting this info into the public domain is doing more bad than good.There is no need for it,and the logical conclusion is that if the company lose a lot of business,then they need to make even more cutbacks etc.

The constant strike threat is doing the union involved or their members no favours.

iamdonie1984

Just read a 24 hour strike will begin May 30th, the exact day I was due to fly to Portugal. I would imagine thousands of others will be affected as well. Just my luck first holiday in about 5 years and this happens!! Only reason I booked with them was because I couldn't get a suitable Ryanair flight.

I'm not fully up to speed on what the strike relates to, but could hazard a guess it relates to Cabin Crew and something to do with pay or hours.

One thing for sure is that I won't ever use them again, regardless if the strike goes ahead or not.

Outkast_IRE

I am booked on a flight early morning on the 31st of may, hoping i would be unaffected ?

If the airline has any sense it will sort something out, that is the beginning of the june bank holiday weekend so would traditionally be a very busy period.

iamdonie1984

Extremely busy Outkast, my understanding is that it is a 24 hour strike starting midnight so if it goes ahead I'm afraid you too will be affected.

Outkast_IRE

iamdonie1984 wrote: »

Extremely busy Outkast, my understanding is that it is a 24 hour strike starting midnight so if it goes ahead I'm afraid you too will be affected.

Thought if the strike is set for the 30th it would begin at 12.01am on the 30th and end on midnight of the 30th ?

Im not travelling till the 31st at 6.30am

Guess will have to see how it develops over the coming weeks.

iamdonie1984

Whoops I mis-read your post(I'm awful upset about the 30th!!), if you're flying on 31st you should be fine.

So disappointing, hoping Varadkar can sort this out - Key word hopeful, not confident!

Outkast_IRE

iamdonie1984 wrote: »

Whoops I mis-read your post(I'm awful upset about the 30th!!), if you're flying on 31st you should be fine.

So disappointing, hoping Varadkar can sort this out - Key word hopeful, not confident!

I would say it will be sorted it would be one of the worst periods for a strike as it would drive people away for all the summer bookings too

rockonollie

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

I am booked on a flight early morning on the 31st of may, hoping i would be unaffected ?

If the airline has any sense it will sort something out, that is the beginning of the june bank holiday weekend so would traditionally be a very busy period.

Should be unaffected, but I'd still get there early.....the airport is bound to be crowded with people trying to rebook

Kayly

iamdonie1984 wrote: »

Just read a 24 hour strike will begin May 30th, the exact day I was due to fly to Portugal. I would imagine thousands of others will be affected as well. Just my luck first holiday in about 5 years and this happens!! Only reason I booked with them was because I couldn't get a suitable Ryanair flight.

I'm not fully up to speed on what the strike relates to, but could hazard a guess it relates to Cabin Crew and something to do with pay or hours.

One thing for sure is that I won't ever use them again, regardless if the strike goes ahead or not.

We are in the very same position- Six of us due to fly to the Algarve on 30th and have been looking forward to it since I booked the flights in November. If the strike goes ahead I'll never fly with them again. Every year there is something similar with them. We are only going for three nights, so dunno if it'd be worth it going the next day, if that were even possible. So disappointing , and ruins the whole thing as you cant book anything else in case its called off.

iamdonie1984

Yep exactly the same, 6 of us for 4 nights - booked it in January, have exams the week before so was living for a holiday!

Let's hope it's sorted quickly, although unions in Ireland are awful for dragging these things on and on. Unions for these airlines have way too much leverage with the strike option I feel.

String

After a strike threat around a time I was going on trip to New York a couple years ago, I have never used them again. It's not worth the stress, rather pay extra for a different airline.

pajor

iamdonie1984 wrote: »

I'm not fully up to speed on what the strike relates to, but could hazard a guess it relates to Cabin Crew and something to do with pay or hours.

Yeah, it's about cabin crew rostering. http://www.thejournal.ie/aer-lingus-strike-2-1463381-May2014/

Flying over to the Netherlands for 6 weeks on the 27th, dodged a bullet there!

ThunbergsAreGo

Are aer aran flights affected?

Whatsisname

Going away the 3rd with them to the Algarve, would ya say I'd be ok?

lc180

I know holidays mean a lot to people and the opportunity to get away can be rare these days but on the grand scale of things its not something in life to get stressed out over.

Its just best to follow normal procedure, do your online check-in etc, make sure you're fully insured should the worst happen to occur. Strike action is completely out of your hands folks, you wont know until the last minute if its gonna affect you or not so dont fret until then. Its really just not worth it.

Harps

Does the strike cover all Aer Lingus flights or just Irish airports? I would have assumed all their flights though some articles I've read only mention Dublin, Cork and Shannon being affected. I'm planning on flying Heathrow to Belfast on the Friday so don't want to book without being sure

iamdonie1984

Not sure Harps, give them a call it should be easy to find out.

The unreliability surrounding Aer Lingus would make me shop elsewhere regardless of the price/service.

rockonollie

Starting to lose all faith in these unions and the staff at aer lingus.....they already get 5-6 weeks paid vacation, and their demands in this current dispute include an addition 6 weeks?

iamdonie1984

Re-arranged my flights to Saturday 31st free of charge, had to get it sorted waiting around drives me mad. Hope you all get sorted and remember this when booking your next flight!!

plasteritup

Flying the Wednesday before the strike now free off charge.they said if our flight doesn't go on the 30th they will refund our extra 2 nights accommodation.

Ruu

My brother is flying with them to Portugal in the beginning of June. They lost me as a customer a few years ago, traveling transatlantic can be worrisome enough without wondering if your flight is going to be delayed/cancelled, etc. How they have still any credibility as a company at this stage is beyond me.

rockonollie

It's hard lay all of the blame on the company, the unions seemingly always have unreasonable demands and jump to strike action.......and as long as customers respond to strikes by refusing to give Aer Lingus future business, the unions will continue to use work stoppages as their primary weapon.

rockonollie

Here we go again.....haven't even gotten through the first strike and IMPACT are already announced their intent to lead a further strike, probably sometime in June.

On the other side of the table, Aer Lingus have started throwing punches of their own, insisting that giving the cabin crew the rosters that they want be unsustainable and would lead to the company moving their long-haul base of operations to the US, resulting in 300 jobs moving out of Ireland.

dubdaymo

rockonollie wrote: »

Here we go again.....haven't even gotten through the first strike and IMPACT are already announced their intent to lead a further strike, probably sometime in June..

Look, good people, get used to it. Whilst these living-in-the-past unions are involved there will never be any time that you can book with Aer Lingus without having to worry about industrial action being threatened or actioned on the day of your flights. It is not going to go away. It is all about power. These unions see you as mere pawns in their game. They do not see you as customers. They still get paid their big salaries when employees are on strike. Even if this dispute is resolved they will already have dreamed up "What's next?"

The only way to try to break this cycle is to make a decision now not to book on Aer Lingus and fly with some other airline. These people might be brought to their senses if inevitable job losses follow. By continuing to book flights with Aer Lingus you are just encouraging them to continue as is.

gugleguy

dubdaymo wrote: »

These people might be brought to their senses if inevitable job losses follow.

They won't be brought to their senses. I have heard this argument before. Same old Same old. Prime Time. Cue Angry Politician. Angry, spitting nails Aer Lingus Management Rep. Miriam O'Callaghans dour face. Joe Duffy without the laughs. I don't fly Aer Lingus.

rockonollie

Just reading the reports on the first day of talks between Aer Lingus and Impact:

"The company have said they're prepared to talk to us about [that roster]," said Michael Landers from IMPACT.

"We suspect that they're not serious about that, because they've hedged it around a lot of conditions."

Piss-poor attitude in my opinion.......why even sit down for talks when they've apparently decided already that they aren't going to agree?

ToxicPaddy

I used to make a point of flying Aer Llingus when going abroad for personal and business trips, now I try to avoid at all cost. It's just not worth the hassle anymore. The company I work for is of the same opinion and they book hundreds of flights a year to Europe and the US.

It's a pity really but the unions and staff seem content to pissing off the one group of people they shouldn't, their customers.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Why cant they just make them all redundant and create new positions for people who will be grateful of a job?

ToxicPaddy

I believe there are some legitimate concerns with regards the employee pension scheme etc but calling a strike every time they have a problem is really pushing it imo.

It's a pity, cause I did enjoy flying with them..

Aboutime

Another threatened strike!!l
June 16 th and June 18 th.
Utter utter madness.

Mad4simmental

Yep only a matter of time untill a takeover or total shutdown. They really are killing the goose that lays their golden egg. I'm sure many other people as myself will never fly with them agen.

rockonollie

I always wonder why the LRC doesn't get involved until things reach crisis stage.

String

Sack them all and bring in non union staff. Probably be cheaper in the long run

Aboutime

Really the big red strike button should only be pressed after all other options have been exhausted.
Seems it's been used,or the threat of it on a regular basis over every issue.
Either way the government will cave in ,which is even more disappointing!
As far as I know the unions have to agree to bring in the LRC?.
Way too trigger happy!

Dredd_J

It seems to me looking from the outside in that every time Aer Lingus decide to spring anything on the workers they just do it.
When the unions say they want to talk about it, Aer Lingus just say talk to the hand.
The union seems to always have to press the strike button to get the company to engage with them. Then the company pretends they were ready to talk all along.

Thankfully ive never had to need a union to talk to any companies ive ever worked for, but I can see if you were being bullied by Aer Lingus as they are, that it would be an option you would have no choice but to consider.

But even so, I'm definitely not booking any flights with Aer Lingus for the rest of the year, and if all the strike talk hasnt stopped by then i wont be booking any next year either.

rockonollie

Guess Aer Lingus don't work weekends......into the 4th day since the strike was announced and they're still telling customers to assume that their flights on June 16th and 18th will operate as normal, and still refusing to waive change fees for customers who want to reschedule.

I've read stories of families who are leaving today for their holidays and they don't even know if their return flight will run as normal. I know they didn't get alot of notice (I call BS on IMPACT claiming that by saying that they'll strike again "sometime in June" they meet the legal requirement of 2 weeks notice of a strike, I think the 2 weeks notice should require a date to be set.) but they know the strike is scheduled, they've known since Friday and by now they should have worked out alternative options for customers.

Yellowledbetter

Looking for some info here folks. I'm due to fly home from Amsterdam on the 18th and was wondering,if the strike goes ahead is the onus on AL to provide accommodation and an alternative flight? I have travel insurance but I'm just curious as to what the story is from AL end of things

rockonollie

Yellowledbetter wrote: »

Looking for some info here folks. I'm due to fly home from Amsterdam on the 18th and was wondering,if the strike goes ahead is the onus on AL to provide accommodation and an alternative flight? I have travel insurance but I'm just curious as to what the story is from AL end of things

Technically yes, but it's not straight forward. You can ask at the time of rebooking, you might get lucky, otherwise just keep your hotel receipt.

Under EU air passenger rights, the airline is obliged to pay for resonable accomodation expensed incurred as a result of cancelled flight (resonable meaning that you may get the cost of a room at a holiday inn style hotel, but don't expect a night at the Hilton to be paid for.

The full set of passenger rights are here

rockonollie

So we're now 6 days from the first and 8 days from the second strike date and Aer Lingus are still burying their heads in the sand.....a quick look at their Facebook page reveals dozens of customers trying to find out about flight status and changing flights, all getting the same generic answers directing them to sit tight, I guess they're really hoping that the talks tomorrow will lead to the action being called off, but they'll be in major trouble if the strike goes ahead......for the May 30th strike, customers were given 2 weeks notice of flight cancellations and alternate travel plans.

Aboutime

Let's hope their lack of communication means there is something positive for the travellers going on behind the scenes.
It couldn't be possible that they would leave people in that position so close to their travel dates.
I hope that Aerlingus will " grow a pair" and take the union on.
Though difficult to see that happen when the likes of David Begg is on the board,and the Government will be very reluctant to upset the unions.Like I said they really should grow a pair.

Dredd_J

rockonollie wrote: »

So we're now 6 days from the first and 8 days from the second strike date and Aer Lingus are still burying their heads in the sand.....a quick look at their Facebook page reveals dozens of customers trying to find out about flight status and changing flights, all getting the same generic answers directing them to sit tight, I guess they're really hoping that the talks tomorrow will lead to the action being called off, but they'll be in major trouble if the strike goes ahead......for the May 30th strike, customers were given 2 weeks notice of flight cancellations and alternate travel plans.

Im up nice and early for a Ryanair flight. Have to fly twice a week and switched to them since Aer Lingus arent at all reliable now. Ryanair really arent that bad. Since I used to fly Aer Lingus all the time, I assumed Ryanair would be a lot worse, but now that i;ve changed over I think given the carry on of Aer Lingus (not the staff) as a company Im going to just stick to booking with Ryanair in future.
You just cant depend on your flight not being effected by a strike with Aer Lingus.
I want to know well in advance if my flight is even threatened woith being cancelled so that i can make alternative arrangements. Less than a weeks notice is just not acceptable.

rockonollie

Dredd_J wrote: »

Im up nice and early for a Ryanair flight. Have to fly twice a week and switched to them since Aer Lingus arent at all reliable now. Ryanair really arent that bad. Since I used to fly Aer Lingus all the time, I assumed Ryanair would be a lot worse, but now that i;ve changed over I think given the carry on of Aer Lingus (not the staff) as a company Im going to just stick to booking with Ryanair in future.
You just cant depend on your flight not being effected by a strike with Aer Lingus.
I want to know well in advance if my flight is even threatened woith being cancelled so that i can make alternative arrangements. Less than a weeks notice is just not acceptable.

I'm fine with Ryanair, unfortunately its not an option for us.

Gatica

rockonollie wrote: »

Starting to lose all faith in these unions and the staff at aer lingus.....they already get 5-6 weeks paid vacation, and their demands in this current dispute include an addition 6 weeks?

If you read the Journal article, they're working 60 hour weeks, and 6 days on 1 off and back to 6 days. That's not exactly being overly demanding..
As much as I hate any unions (they're nothing but trouble), I think it's normal to want reasonable work hours.

Aboutime

I don't think that's correct.as far as I'm aware they work 18/20 hours in the skies,rest of time 20/22 hours is ground duty.
They want 6 days on and three days off which in effect means a lot more time off.
More than happy to be corrected on that.

rockonollie

Gatica wrote: »

If you read the Journal article, they're working 60 hour weeks, and 6 days on 1 off and back to 6 days. That's not exactly being overly demanding..
As much as I hate any unions (they're nothing but trouble), I think it's normal to want reasonable work hours.

Well it all depends on who you believe........the union claimed that workers were working 60 hour weeks......the air line responded releasing roster figures that showed that less than 0.5% of shifts exceeded 50 hours.

One or both sides must have been lying, or at very least twisting the facts to suit their own agenda. Just as the minister described it, both sides are using megaphone diplomacy.


From RTE.ie (May 20th)

The company described the cabin crew demands for roster changes as outrageous, saying they would result in an additional 32 paid days off for cabin crew each year.


Management defended the current rosters and terms of employment, which include between 26 and 31 days of annual leave.


The company described union claims that staff were working up to 16 hours a day, or 60 hours a week, as "extremely misleading".


It said a detailed analysis of actual Aer Lingus rosters over the past 12
months showed that the average working week for cabin crew was 30 hours, and that less than 0.5% of cabin crew worked more than 50 hours in a seven-day period.


It said the longest planned working day in the roster was 13 hours, involving the Dublin-San Francisco route.


It also rejected union allegations that crew were required to work six days on, one day off and six days on again.