Action by Aer Lingus management in withholding payments due to workers under the national agreement, pending resolution of a cost cutting plan, is certainly provocative. And it will cause difficulties for Government, which part-owns the company, as it prepares for negotiations with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on a new social partnership arrangement.
But with little or no progress being made in securing trade union agreement for what chief executive Dermot Mannion regards as necessary cost savings and reforms, his options were limited.
Already, misrepresentations are taking place as both sides attempt to capture public support and occupy the moral high ground. Trade unions are furious over the timing and content of the announcement and regard it as an attempt to push them into early industrial action. Siptu president Jack O'Connor went so far as to describe the company's action as "blackmail". But Aer Lingus management is frustrated over what it regards as trade union obstruction to necessary reforms.
Such confrontational postures would have been unlikely two years ago. But, as was apparent in the decision to transfer air services from Shannon to Belfast, Aer Lingus is now a publicly-owned company and its management is responding assertively to market forces and the perceived requirements of its shareholders. Mr Mannion has assured investors that savings forecast under cost-cutting plans contained in a Programme for Continuous Improvement (PCI) will materialise in 2008. In such circumstances and with Michael O'Leary of Ryanair breathing down his neck, he has to deliver.
The PCI was designed to protect the company against a Ryanair takeover and was presented to the trade unions last December. In view of the fiercely competitive nature of the international airline business, the Labour Court found the rationale behind the plan to generate labour cost savings of €20 million annually, with other changes likely to provide an additional €10/15 million savings, to be acceptable. And it recommended that negotiations should take place.
But, according to Mr Mannion, subsequent talks with trade union representatives have been unproductive, with a hard core not accepting the need for change. An industrial dispute would not be in the interests of either workers or management, and it would inconvenience the travelling public. Aer Lingus is a profitable and successful company. But, in a rapidly changing and competitive environment, it cannot stand still. Change is always a challenge. But it is one of the few certainties in life. Mr Mannion has indicated a willingness to negotiate on cost-saving measures. Better jaw, jaw than war, war.