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.”