Industrial action at Dublin Airport 'still avoidable,' says president of SIPTU
Tim O'Brien
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, is to write to unions at Aer Rianta over the next few days to elaborate on his assurance that there will be no compulsory redundancies at the company.
The Minister's decision to elaborate on his offer comes after the SIPTU general president, Mr Jack O'Connor, described next week's threatened industrial action at Dublin Airport as "undesirable, unnecessary and is still avoidable".
Industrial action at the airport on Thursday would disrupt a number of EU ministerial and officials meetings in Dublin, and embarrassed the Government.
However, in a statement yesterday Mr O'Connor made it clear that the proposed "limited action" was solely in the context of job security issues at Aer Rianta, and it was not as a protest at the decision to break up the company.
While SIPTU is strongly opposed to the break-up of the company, Mr O'Connor said it "will not be seeking to obstruct the implementation of that decision by means of industrial action".
"Rather we fully intend to continue to campaign by all the legitimate means at our disposal to persuade the Government to amend its policy."
A meeting of the Aer Rianta group of unions at the airport yesterday ended with agreement to consider the Minister's elaboration which is expected early next week.
The unions are seeking clarification on a number of issues, including how their job security would be "enshrined specifically and clearly in legislation".
In a letter sent to the Minister last Monday the unions raised nine points on which they wanted comfort.
These included clarification as to how the no-redundancy guarantee would remain in place should any of the three airports in the group, Dublin, Cork and Shannon, be faced with privatisation or severe financial hardship in the future.
The unions also want guaranteed terms and conditions of employment; pension rights; contracts of employment; collective agreements; trade union recognition; collective bargaining structures; worker participation in the running of the companies; and access to financial and other information.
Sources close to Mr Brennan said he would be writing "over the next few days" to the unions to elaborate on his assurances.