Mr. Breaker and jetstar1965 you aren't in full possession of the facts obviously. Since you aren't, why not get your facts right before jumping in with silly comments.
Some facts;
1. Aer Lingus offerred a redundancy to deal to all 6,000 staff in the airline...but barred pilots from the same deal. Instead they offerred pilots with 30 years service a maximum of £50,000, which is less than some of the office staff will receive in their redundancy cheque! Gross inequity.
2. Aer Lingus pilots have had a long standing leave of absence agreement with the company which has often helped them in the past to get rid of pilot resources, yet call on them for re-employment when required. The company has now unilaterally broken that agreement, changing the terms so that nobody would voluntarily want to take it in future.
3. The union has offerred Part Time Work or Job Sharing as options to the company. They won't even discuss it.
4. The company announced a requirement to lose 156 pilots from the books. 70 have already gone, mainly those in cadet courses but not on the payroll. The remaining 86 junior jobs would create a saving in monetary terms which is exactly equivalent to the savings generated by 20 senior pilots leaving. Hence the number Spearing Britney mentions. If the redundancy offer was open to them there would likely be well in excess of double that number prepared to go. But Aer Lingus refuses to accept this (see point 1.)
5. Management has continuously undercrewed the operation for the last number of years, leading to the inability of pilots to avail of vacation entitlements. As a result a 'Leave mountain' of 2,600 weeks has accumulated...that's equivalent to 65 man years. The figure actually rises again this year because they intend to under provision leave yet again. And still they want to make pilots redundant?
6. There is a SCOPE agreement with Aer Lingus. Which they are ignoring. The most serious abuse being their intention to place Futura aircraft in EIDW next summer to operate Aer Lingus flights. They also seem to be about to bring US pilots over to bolster numbers for the peak period.
7. In 2001, the pilots iun Aer Lingus were the only group in the airline who did not take part in strike actions. The rest of the company was closed down for three days by other unions.
8. Every group in the airline received pay rises as a result of strike actions. The pilots received nothing.
9. Pilots are on pay freeze. They will not receive the national wage award which ammounts to about 9% this year.
10. An independent arbiter was charged with benchmarking Aer Lingus pilots salaries. He had awarded the group around 20%. This will naturally not be paid, nor is it being sought from the company.
That means the pilots have already contributed almost 30% in savings since 9-11.
11. The pilot MEC has met with management over 40 times, making every attempt to find an agreed resolution. They have been stonewalled throughout.
12. Management has also presented the pilots with a massive package of working conditions demands. Everything that has been on their wish list for years is being sought...and then some.
Two months ago any reasonable guy in Aer Lingus would have said that the company needed some redundancies and work practice concessions to survive. But as time has passed doubts begin to form about their true motives, especially when there are issues of genuine inequity. It soons starts to feel like the pilot group is being scapegoated, or made into an example for the education of others within the company.
Eventually the inescapable conclusion dawns, that what is being asked is not the necessary and just demands required to save the company, but a guided missile which is meant to detonate right in the heart of the union. If they can scare enough of the members into abandoning the junior pilots to their unjust fate then they'll have succeeded in driving a wedge down the middle of the group, and the damage will be irreversible.
Thats why IALPA and the Aer Lingus pilot group must and I believe will do the right thing.
[ 16 January 2002: Message edited by: Idunno ]</p>