The Aer Lingus chairman, Mr Bernie Cahill, is to meet FLS Aerospace executives today to review the proposed sale of TEAM to the Danish aircraft maintenance firm. On Monday 59 per cent of TEAM staff refused to accept transfers of employment.
While FLS representatives would not comment ahead of the meeting, there was some optimism in aviation circles that FLS would remain interested in acquiring the Aer Lingus aircraft maintenance subsidiary.
However, the Aer Lingus craft group of unions, which represents more than 1,100 of the 1,550 TEAM workforce, remained strongly opposed to the sale last night. It said that the proposed £54.6 million buy-out package would not compensate for pay increases forgone, increased flexibility and job security.
The group also accused Aer Lingus management of attempting to intimidate TEAM workers into surrendering their letters of guarantee of continued employment by Aer Lingus so as to allow the transfer to FLS employment.
The union group has sought an immediate meeting with the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, to consider alternative strategies. These include a proposal for TEAM workers to buy a shareholding in the company, and suggestions that a minority strategic partner be found in the private sector.
Ms O'Rourke is expected to meet all TEAM unions before the end of the week. However, she has also indicated that some of the craftworkers' demands threaten the future viability of the company. Replying to private notice questions in the Dail yesterday, Ms O'Rourke said that between 1991 and 1997 the company accumulated losses of £100 million.
She accepted that the letters of guarantee held by about 1,100 TEAM workers from Aer Lingus represented a clear guarantee of employment with the parent company. But she did not think "anybody has a job for life . . . That is the rhetoric of some years ago".
FLS Aerospace had provided the only firm offer to buy into TEAM. The company had no future as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aer Lingus, she added.
Ms O'Rourke had earlier briefed the Cabinet on the latest developments at TEAM, and had an hour-long meeting with the Aer Lingus chairman, Mr Bernie Cahill, and his senior executives. They told her that the company's survival depended on tight control of costs, including wage costs and a stable industrial relations environment.
"If either of these latter two conditions were not held, particularly in the current difficult climate surrounding the FLS proposals, then the prospects for TEAM's future viability in both the short and longer terms under Aer Lingus or any other ownership would be black indeed," she told the Dail.
Aer Lingus management and SIPTU, which represents clerical staff, general operatives and some technical and supervisory grades in TEAM, were noticeably less combative than the craft group of unions in their attitude to the deadlock that has emerged. It is thought that the majority of letters of acceptance of the FLS deal came from the SIPTU membership.