To My friends in Aer Lingus, my deepest sympathys. Lets hope this gets resolved quickly.
To those of you working in other airlines, especially UK airlines, who may be rostered to operate some sub-services on Aer Lingus routes on Strike day, a word of advice.
Following the change in the law on secondary picketing brought about by Mrs Thatcher, you must be very careful. If your company rosters you, within the terms of your working agreement to operate sub-service for ANYONE you must undertake the work or be in breach of contract. Furthermore, your employer can seek damages from you for any losses, and your Union may have their funds sequestered if they support you in your refusal to undertake work beacuse of an industrial dispute that is not tied
DIRECTLY to your company.
This law was made VERY clear to all the UK airlines that operated in Australia in 1989. It goes back to the miners dispute. Be warned. I'm not sure this applies to airlines of other nationalities, so they, at least , might have the option of following their conscience, although I suspect in the current pilot market place, I'm not sure how many would want to refuse to work.
Sad days indeed.
p.s. for the benefit of those pilots NOT working for UK airlines, CAP371 (The UK CAA to FTL's) states that minimum rest away from base can be reduced to 11 hours in company provided accomodation, provided that the journey time from the airport to the hotel is less than 30 minutes, and that the hotel room is available for occupancy for 10 hours. So 10 hours in a hotel is legal, giving 11 hours "rest" total.