Disruption of British Midland flights at Dublin Airport has been threatened by a staff dispute arising from the airline's decision to sell off its customer service and ground handling divisions.
The ATGWU has issued strike notice which will take effect next Tuesday unless progress is made at talks with management in London.
The dispute follows a £72 million deal announced last week between British Midland and the Go Ahead Group, also known as GHI, under which 160 of the airline's 200 Dublin-based staff will be transferred to the ground handling company.
A union spokesman said staff were concerned they would lose benefits, such as flight concessions. No compensation has been offered, although some staff members had been with the airline for 20 years, the spokesman added.
"We are hoping to avoid disruption. We are very committed to our customers and we want to assure them that we are on their side. But we may have no other choice than to begin picketing next week."
British Midland said yesterday that it had yet to be notified of strike action. The company said in a statement that the sale of its ground handling business, including ramp services, was part of a major business repositioning programme.
It stressed that there would be no redundancies as a result of the GHI deal.
