WORKERS at Shannon airport have mandated their union to ballot for industrial action on foot of the announcement that the airport is to be separated from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) on December 31. And there were warnings this week that the union cannot guarantee their dispute will not hit Christmas travel arrangements. SIPTU wants staff at the airport to remain as employees of the DAA to protect their existing terms and conditions of employment.
There was widespread disquiet at a meeting of airport staff held within an hour of Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar’s announcement of the new Shannon strategy in Dublin on Monday afternoon.
SIPTU official, Tony Carroll told the Limerick Post that the workers want to ring-fence the agreements under which they work. Balloting on the issue of industrial action was due to start by this Friday, he confirmed.
“There has been nothing about what will happen to the staff. We are writing to the Minister, asking him to keep staff with the DAA and second them to Shannon. There is precedent for this. Aer Rianta staff were seconded to work in Bunratty when Aer Rianta was in charge there and Department of Transport staff have been seconded to work for Aer Rianta. If that happens, then staff pay and conditions are protected. As it is, nobody can say what’s going to happen at the end of the month”, Mr. Carroll said.
Shannon staff received a letter from the DAA last Friday telling them that it was possible that they would no longer be employed by the DAA by December 31.
“People are quite disturbed at not having been consulted in all of this. We can’t rule out action of the ‘blue flu’ sort if we don’t get assurances about pay and conditions”.
Meanwhile. Knock airport has warned of possible legal action against the government over claims that it is giving Shannon an unfair commercial advantage over other regional airports by writing off its €100 million debt.
Reacting to the decision Liam Scollan, Chairman of Ireland West Airport Knock, said that the decision to intervene so generously in one airport while ignoring other airports amounted to an unfair, wasteful and possibly illegal use of scarce resources, which would not serve the interests of national aviation.
The commercial advantage given to Shannon could trigger “the terminal decline of an efficient, growing airport like Knock, which has begun to compete successfully with the State owned Shannon at a fraction of the cost. It was also a financially disastrous policy for hard pressed taxpayers”, Mr Scollan concluded.
