More than 300 employees at Lufthansa Airmotive Ireland have voted overwhelmingly to strike over the use of contract engineers at the aircraft engine maintenance plant.
The employees walked off the job on Tuesday and have been occupying the canteen at the company's plant in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, since. The protest is also at a demand by the company that they not only agree to work with contract workers but accept Sunday and night working.
Only three contract workers were involved in the incident that sparked off unofficial action on Tuesday, but the dispute has rapidly escalated, with a hardening of attitudes on both sides.
LAI has been using contract workers because of difficulty in recruiting and holding permanent staff. According to a TEEU representative, Mr Eamon Devoy, the company owes its difficulties to unwillingness to pay rates as high as rivals. He also said the demand that employees sign forms agreeing to new working conditions before allowing them back amounted to a lock-out.
A week's strike notice is expected to be served on the company by the three unions involved today. SIPTU and the AEEU are the other two unions at the plant. Over 330 of the 470 employees are unionised.
Lufthansa Technik took over the troubled Airmotive plant from Aer Lingus in 1997.
In a statement last night the company said it had advised the unions it intended to use contract craftworkers to cope with demand and these would represent no threat to existing jobs. A spokesman said the use of contract workers was "commonplace throughout the aviation industry".