The Impact trade union said today it will oppose a €74 million cost-saving plan put forward by management at Aer Lingus.
The plan, outlined yesterday by Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion, includes a proposal to cut up to 1,500 job cuts through outsourcing and redeployment.
Impact, which represents cabin crew, pilots and management grades in Aer Lingus, described the proposal as "severe and draconian" and said it would begin consulting with members today on their reaction.
“Not for the first time, Aer Lingus have turned to their workers and asked them to carry the burden,” Impact official Christina Carney said this morning. “This proposal asks too much. The country is in recession, and unemployment is rising. To export jobs during a recession is unacceptable, and we will fight any attempts to do that. That fight begins by talking with management.”
Siptu, which represents around 1,700 staff at the airline, said yesterday its members were furious at the proposals. The union said it will co-operate with a process involving the Labour Relations Commission aimed at producing alternatives. However, it is also to ballot for all-out industrial action.
Aer Lingus has said that the measures are necessary to ensure the future viability of its operations. The company lost €22 million in the first six months of the year and has forecast a bigger loss for next year.
The company has said that unions could produce alternative proposals that would generate similar levels of savings. However, it wants an agreement in place by the end of November.
Under the proposals the airline would effectively eliminate its in-house ground operation (check-in and baggage handling), cargo and catering divisions at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports. Staff in these areas would be offered a transfer to a new service provider or invited to take a voluntary redundancy package.
For cabin crew, Aer Lingus proposed closing down its bases in Shannon and Heathrow in London. Staff would be offered a transfer to Dublin or Cork.
It has also proposed that from next summer its services to Boston, New York and San Francisco would be operated by cabin crew recruited in the United States by the company on revised terms and conditions.
For staff remaining at Aer Lingus a pay freeze would be introduced until the end of 2009 under the proposals. The company also said that it intended to introduce new performance-based contracts for head office and support staff and abolish the current system of increments.
Limerick East Labour TD Jan O’Sullivan described the carrier's plan as devastating for the workers and their families and the midwest region.
"These proposed job losses . . . will effectively reduce Aer Lingus to a shell of its former self," she said. "Why should the people of the midwest and indeed the whole western sea board have any confidence or loyalty in Aer Lingus when the company wants to shed its entire workforce who have for decades given loyal service to Aer Lingus."
Ms O'Sullivan added that the "ill conceived" Aer Lingus plan "is an attempt by the company to simply use the current uncertainty economically to slash jobs and strip the company of its most valuable assets namely its workers".
