THOUSANDS OF passengers intending to travel through Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports face considerable disruption next Monday following a decision by staff to stage an eight-hour work stoppage.
The trade union Siptu said that its members at the Dublin Airport Authority, including fire and security personnel, would strike from 4am to midday on Monday. The action forms part of the nationwide “day of strikes” being organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) in companies which have not paid wage increases set out under the national deal negotiated last autumn or put in place some alternative arrangement.
The strike would mean that no aircraft would land at or take off from the three airports over the eight-hour period. A spokesman for the DAA, which employs staff at the three State airports, said that it had asked unions to go to the Labour Relations Commission on its financial recovery plan under which it is seeking to defer the pay rises.
The largest craft union, the TEEU, said that it would be calling on all its 45,000 members to take part in the day of strikes next Monday. It said that this would include those in companies which were compliant with the national agreement. It said further action would only take place in companies which had not honoured the deal.
The trade union Unite is also expected to announce further details of strike action today. However, it has indicated that in some private sector companies staff have voted not to take part. The largest public sector union, Impact, is also set to announce the results of its strike ballot today.
Employers’ body Ibec has offered to enter into direct talks with unions on a new agreement for economic recovery. However, it urged Ictu to call off the “day of strikes”. It said that this would improve the climate for such discussions to take place.
Ibec has said that any new deal would have to involve a pay pause for a significant duration. However, crucially, it has said that it would not stand in the way of employers who were in a position to pay the wage increases under the current deal. Ibec had called for this agreement to be deferred indefinitely.
Jack O’Connor, the head of Siptu, yesterday described the Ibec move as “a positive development”.
