This article is from page 16 of the 2006-10-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
SHANNON Aer Lingus workers concerned for their jobs were reluctant to speak on the record at the weekend about the Ryanair bid and proposed cuts.
With Ryanair making an aggressive bid for the airline and promising major cuts and job losses, Aer Lingus bosses are fighting back by promising cost-cutting measures.
On Friday, staff were concerned about reports in the national media that job-cuts might also be on the agenda for Aer Lingus management.
Those who did speak to The Clare People declined to be named but revealed how staff felt they are caught in the crossfire.
“If Michael O’Leary gets his way, then none of us can be certain whether we’ll have jobs this time next year. Now our own bosses are saying there will have to be cut-backs. Seems we’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” one woman worker said.
Another man working in the catering department said that staff generally were “concerned. We’ll see what the union has to say about it all, but people are worried, particularly if it looks like Michael O’Leary will take over. But it’s not even a question anymore of who you want to be paying your wages, so long as you have a wage.”
Last week, the national media carried reports that Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion called in union representatives to tell them that there would be drastic cuts if the airline was to meet the Ryanair low-fares challenge.
The 100 employees involved in sales and marketing in the US were reported to be under scrutiny. In its bid for the airline, Ryanair said it could run the department with just a handful of people. But SIPTU had a clarification meeting with Mannion in the wake of the media reports.
A spokesman for SIPTU in Shannon said that Mannion, “clarified the position. All he said was that costs would be kept under constant review. He said nothing about cutting jobs. Keeping costs under review is normal procedure for any company. All of the agreements we negotiated with Aer Lingus are still in place.”
Meanwhile, the chances of success for the budget airline’s bid for a hostile takeover now seem unlikely. O’Leary had built up a 19.2 per cent stake in Aer Lingus, but on Thursday, Aer Lingus pilots added to their existing 4 per cent stake.