Serious strikes in Ireland are almost entirely confined to the public sector these days. Also Union membership in the public sector is very high (80% plus ?) compared with the private sector (20% minus ?). Trouble with some Aer Lingus employees and their union people (especially SIPTU) is that they have not quite adjusted to the reality that they are not in the public sector any more. My fear is that SIPTU will use Aer Lingus to create such trouble that future privatisations of state companies (especially in the transport sector) will become politically impossible. That way the SIPTU barons will preserve their little empire, and Aer Lingus and their employees will get sacrificed in the process. So wake up folks!
Sometimes I think that the Aer Lingus SIPTU people act as if they are in the pay of M O’L, they are so brain-dead when it comes to facing the reality of the competition.