The leadership of the largest trade union within Aer Lingus has criticised the airline's pilots for endangering other workers' jobs.
Mr Noel Dowling, national industrial secretary of SIPTU, which represents 2,600 staff at the airline, said its members were asking themselves why the pilots, who are represented by IMPACT, seemed to be exempting themselves from change.
"There is no tick-tacking or collusion between us and management. But management is well aware of the huge disquiet among our members who are asking how come pilots, who are among the best-paid people in the airline, are not implementing new practices while we are turning ourselves inside-out to implement change," he said.
His comments reflected the opinion of many SIPTU workers at Dublin Airport yesterday.
The 21 flights which Aer Lingus had organised, using "strike-breaking" crew from an outside company, went ahead without disruption, despite a call from the Dublin Airport Workers' Network (DAWN) for all airport workers to refuse to deal with the strike-breaking aircraft and crew.
Ms Clare Daly of DAWN said the fact that the flights were not disrupted did not necessarily mean that other workers were unsympathetic to the pilots.
Ms Daly, who is also a SIPTU catering shop steward, said a lot of people within SIPTU disagreed with Mr Dowling's remarks. "What the unions should do is protest against the attempts by management to crush the pilots, which in turn will make it easier for them to put the boot into other workers and get the company ready for sale, which is just what the Government wants," she said.
Mr Dowling, however, said the pilots appeared to have different interests to other workers at the airline. He noted they were less than supportive to SIPTU when the airline announced plans to out-source up to 800 jobs under its survival plan, a proposal which had since been abandoned.
He added: "IMPACT are on record saying they are not opposed to privatisation. They are on record saying they were not opposed to out-sourcing jobs, and they have made no secret of their view of the world if Aer Lingus is to be sold and taken over by another airline. Their attitude is that the company which takes over will still need cabin crew and, therefore, the pilots would simply be changing employer while the only jobs shed would be in catering, ground handling, etc. In saying that, I am reflecting the concern of our members."
Meanwhile, anger was growing yesterday among travel agents over Aer Lingus's decision to cancel operations this weekend.
Mr Nick Durham, owner of Gold Travel, which has four outlets in counties Dublin, Kildare and Offaly, said Aer Lingus was "forcing travel agents to look elsewhere, and that in itself will bring about the airline's collapse". He said: "I know the vast majority of my colleagues are very reluctant to take an Aer Lingus booking if there is a viable alternative."
Mr Durham, a director of the Irish Travel Agents' Association, said Aer Lingus's decision to give the industry 24 hours' notice of a "lock-out" when the pilots and other workers had to give a week's notice of strike action was "utterly beyond belief".
Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: "I have never seen such callous behaviour from the management of an airline. It makes Ryanair look benevolent."
He also criticised the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, for failing to intervene in the dispute.
Echoing this point, Green Party MEP Ms Patricia McKenna said she was "amazed at the apparent lack of concern" displayed by the Taoiseach, "as the future of the national airline is in the balance and the jobs of thousands of people working in the tourism industry are at risk".
