More than 300 ground handlers at Dublin and Cork Airports plan to strike tomorrow if no progress is made at last-minute talks with their employer, Servisair.
The SIPTU workers, who carry out check-in, arrival and loading duties for a range of European and international airlines, are threatening to withdraw labour for four days unless the company makes an improved pay offer on that recommended by the Labour Relations Commission.
Talks between the two parties ended yesterday without agreement and are due to resume today.
The dispute has been ongoing since November 1988 and came close to resolution last summer with the LRC's intervention.
Last August, however, the workers rejected the commission's recommendations, including an increase in the fixed weekly supplement from £40 to £47 and improved premiums for weekend and early and late starts. The supplement is paid on top of the basic wage, which begins at about £220 a week.
The Labour Court failed to recommend any improvement on the offer, and a subsequent ballot resulted in the company being served 14 days' strike notice, which ends tomorrow.
Ms Carmel Hogan, secretary of SIPTU's civil aviation branch, said it was seeking a supplement of at least £50 which, unlike the current supplement being offered, would be retrospective.
More than 280 of the SIPTU workers are based at Dublin Airport. An estimated 40 at Cork Airport are expected to join the strike, which begins at 2 p.m. Entrances to both airports will be picketed.
A spokesman for Servisair said it had fully accepted the LRC and Labour Court recommendations and was committed to increasing supplementary payments to workers. However, he said, "the company has to honour the terms of Partnership 2000 and we expect the unions to do the same.
"The company has spoken to the airlines and has contingency plans in place." He refused to confirm or deny whether these contingency plans included the drafting in of staff from overseas.
However, Ms Hogan said she understood this to be the case and asked "Why is the company importing staff and paying for their flights and accommodation when they say they can't pay us any more?"
The company, which operates from 72 airports in 10 countries, employs 500 people at Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports in the summer and 400 in winter. It provides ground support to a number of airlines, but not Aer Lingus or Ryanair which have their own baggage-handling and desk staff.
