Thousands of air passengers face flight cancellations or delays next Thursday after SIPTU confirmed its intention to stage a strike at airports. Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
It announced a six-hour stoppage from 7.30 a.m. which, if it goes ahead, is expected to close Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports on the morning after the St Patrick's Day holiday. A full-day public transport strike, which would shut down bus and rail services, is also planned for Thursday by the same union.
The timing of both actions has caused dismay in some union circles, given that talks with the Department of Transport on the future of Aer Rianta and CIÉ were making progress. The Aer Rianta group of unions, which includes SIPTU, is to meet tomorrow to consider the situation.
As well as the strike next Thursday, SIPTU announced plans for "further limited stoppages" at airports on April 2nd, April 20th and April 26th.
All the actions, including next week's strike, have been planned with the aim of disrupting meetings of the EU presidency.
An Aer Rianta spokesman said that about 160 flights, with more than 23,000 seats, were scheduled to arrive at or depart from Dublin airport during the six-hour stoppage.
More than 40 flights are scheduled to be handled by Shannon airport and 31 by Cork, carrying a total of about 7,000 passengers, during the same period.
Airlines are more likely to cancel the flights affected, rather than allow major backlogs to develop, it is understood.
Ryanair called on Aer Rianta to implement its contingency plan to keep the airport open. If it failed to do so, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, should dismiss the Aer Rianta board, it said. "SIPTU are yet again threatening to disrupt 50,000 passengers, effectively closing one of Ireland's essential services during our St Patrick's Day celebrations, when no jobs are at risk in Dublin Airport," the airline said in a statement
Mr Brennan said there was no reason for the actions and SIPTU should pull back from causing such major disruption.
In the CIÉ talks, it is understood the unions had made progress towards achieving their key demand that Dublin Bus would not be reduced in size to make way for private competitors.
Talks on how the capital's bus market would be opened to competition were continuing. In the Aer Rianta talks, unions were awaiting the Government's financial information underpinning the decision to break up the company.
Mr Brennan had agreed that the unions would be given time to have this information examined by their own experts.
His announcement this week that legislation on the break-up would be placed before the Dáil soon antagonised unions. This suggested, they said, he was proceeding with his plans regardless of the outcome of the current discussions. Announcing the planned six-hour stoppage, Mr Michael Halpenny of SIPTU said industrial action appeared to be the only way to ensure that Mr Brennan honoured his commitment to give unions time to fully examine his plans.