I had no interest your wages until you lot drew my attention to it on Wed last by leaving me stranded. You didn't care who else you hurt.
Letters to the Irish Times - " Madam, As if the current fiscal barriers to attracting business to Ireland werent bad enough, the decision by the handsomely remunerated air traffic controllers to go on strike ensures we now have physical barriers to contend with also. Yours, etc, Eric Ryan"
Starting for a 25 year old ATCO in Ireland
Basic 55,600.
Shift allowance 15,200.
6% Bank holiday allowance 7,200.
30.5% pension contribution of 17,000.
When Thorisgold discussed how his take home pay didn't match anything like what the media were discussing he conveniently forgot to include the extra 30% put aside for his pension. One has to ask how on earth an individual could ignore such a generous payment as that? What else is he ignoring?
My understanding is that only the Spanish are paid more than the Irish. There is public outrage in Spain this week. Of 2,300 controllers 10 were paid between 810,000 and 900,000 last year. A further 226 were paid between 450,000 and 540,000 and 701 were paid between 270,000 and 360,000. The average basic salary is 200,000. And yes, they are unhappy with their lot and strike too.
So in Spain you now have 1. Adverse public opinion, 2 A faltering economy (property bubble land) and 3. AENA lost 300 million. (sounds a bit like Ireland doesn't it).
Result - Mr Blanco has bowed to public outrage and is reducing salaries by 12.6 million. Pay freeze and / or job cuts.
Ireland are the second highest paid ATCO's in Europe.
I believe the UK controllers get £60,000 on average rising to £90,000 (don't they have two of the worlds busiest airports - bet they use this 'new system tool'.
I don't like misleading international comparisons so until you or your union are truthful to the questioins asked then one can only conclude the media reports are either correct or underestimates.
You strike Wed, following day Leo's lot announced a 20% reduction in capacity. They can make more money elsewhere so they might as well help you feel the pinch of your actions. DAA too must be delighted. DUB won't even be in the top 25. If you had any cop on at all you'd realise you don't go striking about wage increases these days, especially in Ireland.
Hangten, thank you for taking the time.
The bottom line is we need to update our legislation to outlaw the kind of action and damage you guys did to our country last Wed.