Talks resume in Aer Lingus dispute

Talks between Aer Lingus and the trade union Impact aimed at averting industrial action over plans by the airline to close its cabin crew base at Shannon Airport resumed last night.

Cabin crew at the airline last week voted in favour of taking industrial action, up to and including strike action, in protest at the planned closure of the Shannon facility and in relation to roster arrangements.

The Labour Relations Commission intervened in the dispute last Friday, however, and talks were also held on Saturday.

Transatlantic traffic
Aer Lingus has said that it had originally planned to expand the Shannon base to facilitate an increase in its transatlantic services. Initially, the airline had wanted to use its own cabin crew to work on leased aircraft which would be operating the new services.

However, it said it could not reach agreement with Impact on the staffing levels for cabin crew to apply on the leased aircraft operating the new services.

The airline later said it would effectively outsource cabin crew arrangements for the new transatlantic services to operate from Shannon, some of which are due to commence in January.