THE Irish Air Line Pilots' Association has been invited to a meeting at the Labour Relations Commission this morning to discuss next Sunday's threatened strike by Aer Lingus pilots. This is the first sign of a breakthrough in the dispute, which threatens to seriously disrupt air passenger and freight traffic in the Republic.
Confirming last night that IALPA had received an invitation to talks, one of the union's senior negotiators, Mr Ted Murphy, said it had been asked to provide the commission with an informal briefing on the situation. "Clearly, we are pleased to provide it."
But both sides are continuing to prepare for a full scale dispute. Aer Lingus management has set up a contingency group which is drawing up plans to minimise disruption to services in the event of a strike. IALPA is contacting the International Federation of Air Line Pilots (IFALPA), of which Mr Murphy is a vice president, to ensure members "black" Aer Lingus efforts to recruit pilots or lease in aircraft.
Mr Murphy said last night that it would be calling on IFALPA's 100,000 members to "maximise competition" to Aer Lingus. "Colleagues in competing companies will be asked to co-operate with employers in increasing the frequency of services on Aer Lingus routes to deal with the extra traffic.
"We don't want to inconvenience the public and we would prefer them to travel with first class carriers than the flying flea pits Aer Lingus will try to bring in."
IALPA has also begun an intensive lobbying campaign to get its message to the public. Yesterday, a delegation met members of the Irish Travel Agents' Association to explain its case, today, it be ins meeting Fianna Fail and Labour TDs in the North Dublin constituencies where many Aer Lingus employees live. Tomorrow it will be explaining its position to the other unions in Aer Lingus.
Tomorrow's meeting is being called under the auspices of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions group at the airport. It was called at the request of IALPA to put the pilots' case and seek support from the other unions. However, Mr Murphy said IALPA will not be seeking an all out picket at this stage from congress.
While both sides continue to say they are available for talks, they appear as divided as ever on possible terms of reference for such talks. Aer Lingus wants direct talks on pay "without preconditions". IALPA wants talks on pay to be restricted to discussion of the independent tribunal's 17 per cent award.
The Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs, Mr Dan Loughrey, dismissed IALPA claims that the company wants to provoke a confrontation in order to close down the airline and rebuild it with new staff. "The only company agenda is to permit pay increases in line with what the company can afford," he said.
Management had three priorities, he said. The first was to prevent the strike, the second was to make contingency arrangements to provide a service to the public in the event of a strike, and the third was to ensure there was a company to provide secure employment for its staff in the future.
Conceding the IALPA claim would add £3 million to the annual pay bill of the company. Mr Loughrey said, and make it even more difficult to achieve, the £30 million in savings required by the year 2000 to ensure continuing viability.
Yesterday, the chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association, Mr Colm McDonnell warned that an Aer Lingus strike would be "absolutely catastrophic for some companies".