Madam, – As a family we were badly affected by the last-minute decision of the Impact trade union and its air traffic controllers to create chaos with ordinary people’s travel arrangements.
As a long-term trade unionist I am disgusted at this action which has caused inordinate pain and discomfort to so many innocent travellers. The impact on my family, including two children, is that they have been forced to stay away from home and in London until Sunday evening.
I trust that those trade union leaders responsible for Wednesday’s chaos realise that they have lost the support of many of their one-time supporters. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The 12th Annual European Airfinance Conference is taking place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin. More than 650 airlines lessors, manufacturers, export credit agencies, lawyers and consultants worldwide are present.
The strike by air traffic controllers has seriously affected delegates’ travel plans. From a business perspective, January is an excellent month to forget last year’s economic woes and to move forward. Rather than seize an opportunity to rebuild Ireland’s reputation at the start of the year, it would appear that it is still possible for a small group of public servants to take the law into their own hands and paralyse the movement of international businessmen to and from our shores.
The aviation sector is of paramount importance to the Irish economy. Regrettably, we have made an abysmal start to 2010.
Our Government has been caught once more without a Plan B.
Ireland needs to fight harder than ever for business and we need to ensure that all conferences hosted in our country are an unqualified success from all perspectives. It is essential that conference delegates, irrespective of the industry, can travel to Ireland without hindrance and, above all, feel welcome.
We need strong leadership from our appalling Government, which continues to stumble along from crisis to crisis. Ireland is no longer the small Switzerland we may have thought we were.
Of course things will improve; we are a very resilient nation. However, for this to happen, we would be well advised to keep all our air and sea ports open for business. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The utterly selfish and irresponsible action taken by the air traffic controllers has had an enormously adverse impact on the people who have to travel for their business and those who work in airlines and related service providers to keep the commercial and tourism gateway into and out of Ireland alive and functioning.
The withdrawal of labour by people charged with the delivery of services of national necessity – and by people who are so cosseted in terms of job security, relatively high rates of pay and enviable pension entitlements – is an act that goes beyond irresponsibility and borders on treason.
Ronald Reagan got it right when faced with similar bullying. We, on the other hand, somehow accept that management has no right to implement new work practices without organised labour being able to seek arbitration by the Labour Court, another service paid for the taxpayer.
We tolerate nonsense from the Minister for Transport, who is very practised at saying things like, “The IAA is an independent body and I cannot interfere”.
Isn’t it about time the voice of the people who are victimised by organised labour movements resolve to find a way to have some impact on those who are supposed to run the country and keep vital services running? – Yours, etc