ANALYSIS:News of the airline's out-sourcing plans was unwelcome in an already difficult process, writes Martin Wall
AS THE talks on a new national pay deal approached the deadline set by Taoiseach Brian Cowen last night, unions, employers and Government representatives continued with efforts to find some grounds for compromise in relation to crucial issues such as pay and collective bargaining rights.
As the parties gathered for a final push to conclude a deal, from almost completely out of the blue, the highly volatile issue of the future of Aer Lingus emerged to add a new dynamic to an already difficult process.
General secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) David Begg said that it was "unavoidable" that reports the former State airline planned widespread out-sourcing of its ground operations services and to recruit new cabin crew in the United States would be raised at the talks.
While there was no indication that the reports of the Aer Lingus proposals would derail efforts to reach a deal in Government Buildings, Siptu, the country's largest union, warned that they could undermine acceptance of any such agreement by ordinary members.
For, even if a deal is struck between unions, employers and the Government in the current process, this will have to be ratified by the rank-and-file membership in ballots to be held in the weeks ahead.
Siptu plans to hold both a special conference and a ballot of members on any deal which
might emerge from the long-running talks at Government Buildings. However, as the largest union in the country, a rejection by Siptu would prove fatal to any pay deal and throw the entire social partnership process into chaos.
The question of Aer Lingus and the pay and conditions of staff in the former State airline is hugely important to Siptu which has around 1,700 members in the company.
The union strongly opposed the privatisation of the airline. It has strongly criticised some of the methods of the current management team at the airline, such as linking national wage agreement rises to acceptance of reform plans; bonus payments on offer to senior executives at times of cutbacks elsewhere in the company have also been criticised by Siptu.
The union also went through a long and tortuous process to have the company's recent €20 million cost containment plan accepted by most, but not all, of its categories of members.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor said that the implications of the reports of widespread out-sourcing of the Aer Lingus ground operations - where the bulk of its members work - could prove to be immense for the pay deal process.
He will write to Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion today seeking a response to the reports published yesterday.
Speaking at Government Buildings, O'Connor said that if the Aer Lingus proposals, as reported in the media, were to come to pass, "it would almost inevitably torpedo anything which might emerge from here".
Entering the talks yesterday union and employer representatives appeared a little more upbeat on the prospects of a deal than earlier in the week.
David Begg said that, while he would not say he was confident a deal would be reached, the fact that everyone was still at the table meant that there was some feeling that further progress was possible.
The director general of employers' body Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan, said that the proceedings were "delicately balanced" and "could go either way".
However, he said that he tended to be more optimistic than pessimistic "and the fact that we are still here gives me some faint hopes". Nonetheless, the pace of the process continued to be glacial. By late last night the parties had begun considering draft papers put together by Government officials on a number of thorny issues, but there were no indications of an early conclusion.
