Shannon Aerospace

[mary_hinge]

Whats happening here guys?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0901/shannon.html

Workers at Shannon Aerospace have been placed on protective notice, a week after they voted in favour of industrial action.

Staff are in dispute with the aircraft maintenance company over the non-payment of the final two phases of the Sustaining Progress national agreement, due since 2005.

Shannon Aerospace said it was forced to issue protective notice to the almost 800 workers today due to a substantial reduction in workload.

Heard things weren’t good, but this looks far worse.:sad:

[NFF PLS RTFM]

It sound like silly games on both sides here:

The Management must realise that staff will depart for pastures new if they are not paid a decent wages in line with the Irish inflation rate and a profitable company must be able to pay the agreed national package.
On the other hand the staff must also realise that there is plenty of cheap realible maintenance facilities in both Eastern Europe and now Asia also.

Both must remember that the Shannon region cannot affoard to loose a large compny like this nor will either Staff or Management be likely to pick up simialr employment in the region if this descends into the farce it looks like doing.

Hope it gets sorted out soon.....should do if they both swallow their prde and sit around a table for a chat.

[Flying Mech]

And so it has finally come to this. The spineless work force versus the bitter & twisted managment who have trod on them underfoot for years. However a shrewd managment move to soften up the workforce & keep them working and spineless.
It is about 10 yrs now since I got out of the Funny Farm aka "the twilight zone". Best thing I ever did, my one regret is Ididn't leave sooner.
However it is in everyone elses intrest to keep this show on the road as the last thing any engineer wants to see is 2-300 guys with Licences flooding the market & dragging down the rates for everyone else which is what usually happens when any place goes bust.
So to SAL staff : I salute you for being the spineless bunch you are, long may you stay in the twilight zone.
To the managment: You have spent so long moulding yourself into the twisted & quote "LEAN" cockroaches that you are that you deserve being stuck in SNN for life
So the marrige made in hell continues.

[whiskeyflyer]

I must know you from somewhere FLYING MECH. I left there as well 10 years ago (when the government had to bail Shannon Aerospace out, so nothing much has changed on the business plan.) Only thing I miss are the Ennis pubs:ok: and the rain:hmm: . I must have been amoungst the last wave of people to leave Ireland and if Shannon closes I'll have no work to go back to in Ireland so I can afford a room to live in costing millions of euros as I approach retirement.
So of the original tripartite alliance that set up Shannon, GPA (bust and taken over by GE) Swissair (bust) and now just Lufthansa to play golf at Dromoland castle............

[whiskeyflyer]

From the clare people newspaper
AN OVERWHELMING 91 per cent of workers at aircraft maintenance company Shannon Aerospace, one of the mid west’s largest employers, have voted in favour of industrial action in pursuit of the final two phases of Sustaining Progress due since 2005.
Workers at the Lufthansa-owned, Shannon Airport based plant, which employs 800 staff, were balloted last week for industrial action. The result provided a mandate for action, for which a time and form has yet to be decided.
Facing the possibility of a strike, one airline has already sent an aircraft destined for maintenance at the Shannon plant to an alternative facility in Portugal. Without confirming the details, Shannon Aerospace said that “one customer has decided to withdraw the next aircraft due into Shannon Aerospace.”
According to SIPTU Branch Organiser, Mary O’ Donnell, “Shannon Aerospace has been a very profitable company throughout the last six years with profits of between €1.19m and €12.58m each year since 2000. Staff believe it is outrageous that a company, which is in the healthy state shown by its accounts, should seek to, in effect, reduce the pay of the people who create that profit.”
In July, the Labour Court recommended that both sides meet in an effort to resolve the issue however to date, according to the union, the company has offered nothing to satisfy workers. The Labour Court also accepted the findings of an independent report that outlined the potentially dangerous financial position faced by the company if work practices did not change.
A spokesperson for Shannon Aerospace said, “The company requires cost offsets to enable it to pay the last two phases of the national agreement Sustaining Progress. An independent assessor examined these issues and reported last January that ‘in all these circumstances I believe that the company is entitled to and needs off-setting costs’.”
According to SIPTU however, “The same directors who argue that a minimum increase cannot be paid to staff, have shared in a payout of directors’ fees of € 423,000 between five, in addition to their salaries in the company. In the face of such greed, the workers are asking ‘when is enough ,enough for these people’?,” said Ms O’ Donnell.
But a spokesman for Shannon Aerospace warned that the company’s situation was not sustainable.
“Since its inception, the company has accumulated operating losses of 24 million euro which have been offset by capital contributions from shareholders and from Government grants. At the same time, the average production employee in Shannon Aerospace earns 30 per cent more than the average industrial wage.”

[Flying Mech]

I will rephrase my earlier statment. It seems that there are signs of a bone structure in the SAL worforce,maybe even signs of the workforce attempting to stand up for itself at long last 14 years later since the operation started. I would hazard a guess that the A/C going to portugal would be a BMI A320 coming back off lease,however I may be wrong.
So anyone still working in the twilightzone pray tell, when is the strike starting? (Iam presuming there to be at least1 ppruner in SAL)

[Talk Wrench]

Just a quick reply,

Have the bosses at shannon realised that the masses, Licenced and unlicensed are leaving cos of the better money out there by contracting?

Earn 6000 plus euros a month by getting out to europe.

I did it.

TW

[samfish]

hi,
as an ex ,aerospacer i can only say ,that the best thing about shannon aerospace was the CANTEEN.:D

but best of luck to em all .:ok:

[EI-MICK]

strike is 12 days time.The wednesday apparently.

[samfish]

its about time that management in shannon got a kick in the behind.
this has always being a problem there .
they prey on the settled and squezze every bit of life out of em ,and for that they issue protective notices.

maybe a good resolution would be to get rid of the office section and let lufthansa run it from germany or someone with a HEART.

[mini]

Only have it secondhand but...

Half the workforce would need this thread translated before they could read it. i.e. cheap contractors...

"Management" have been piss poor over a number of years - apparentely in an alarming way. the fact that no action was taken by SA on high to correct this would indicate to me that in the long term view they have thrown the towel in in the fight with the Asian servicers?

:sad:

[MD11Engineer]

Just a quick reply,
Have the bosses at shannon realised that the masses, Licenced and unlicensed are leaving cos of the better money out there by contracting?
Earn 6000 plus euros a month by getting out to europe.
I did it.
TW

That's nothing new. I used to work there until about 6 years ago. During this time we joked that you had to be carefull at the turnstile at the site entrance, because the people leaving SAL would just walk over you. I myself quit over the measly salary there.

It is also to be blamed on SIPTU.
When SAL was almost bankrupt about 10 years ago, staff and management agreed on emergency austerity measures to save the jobs. Unfortunately the SIPTU negotiators didn't put a sunset clause into the agreement, so that the company profits could be checked after a few years and the salaries adjusted accordingly. So SAL, even when it was profitable again, continued to pay emergency salaries.

Also, when an agreement ran out in 2000, SIPTU left our own shop stewards more or less alone. The young shop stewards, realising their own inexperience in dealing with management, asked SIPTU to provide a lawyer and to provide support, but at this time SIPTU was not interested in the Irish aviation industry and did nothing to help our people in their negotiations.

The result was that most SAL employees, once they earned their licence, quit to work somewhere else.
I remember a day when half the avionics team on our line resigned on the same day, in the middle of a D-check, to start working at FLS Dublin.

Jan

[B757B2]

Folks,
I too have worked at SAL in the past, both as a trainee and a Cert stamp, only for them I would not have got my License as quickly as I did. My concern is for the 800 staff who depend on their salaries from this company. We all know people who still work there so let's hope their issues can be resolved quickly. :confused:

[whiskeyflyer]

quote from Irish Emigrant Publications:


A threatened strike at Shannon Aerospace had been called off with
what has been called clarification of a Labour Court ruling,
although it looked suspiciously like a subtle change of mind. The
Court had previously told union and management to negotiate
appropriate cost savings to offset the final two pay increases due
under the Sustaining Progress national wage agreement. In its
clarification the court now says that the increases should be paid
forthwith and the savings agreed subsequently. SIPTU says it can
live with this proposal. The company had accepted the original
ruling; its view on the change was not available.