Aer Lingus thread (in light of HC travelling this weekend).

[sheepshagger]

IMPACT expects Aer Lingus staff action

IMPACT has said that it expects 44 Aer Lingus cabin crew who have refused to comply with new rosters to be removed from the payroll by the end of the day.

The IMPACT trade union has said that it expects 44 Aer Lingus cabin crew who have refused to comply with new rosters to be removed from the payroll by the end of the day.

It said that at least 12 members of staff were removed from their duties last night for taking a meal break after working for eight hours.

It contends that the meal breaks did not disrupt flights, but Aer Lingus insists its schedules were affected.

Investigation meetings are now under way with individual cabin crews following which management is expected to remove staff from the payroll.

Aer Lingus has said it cannot rule out further disruption to flight schedules because of the dispute over the rosters.

The airline said it had contingency plans to try to minimise any disruption that might arise.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0118/aerlingus.html

[Rob K]

From the IMPACT web site:

There are 32 meetings with individual cabin crew taking place today. This number does not include the 12 taken off duties/payroll last night (see earlier statement by IMPACT)
News Content:
Each member of staff is reading a prepared statement setting out their position to the company.

Management is demanding that they sign an undertaking to do anything management instruct them to do in the future.

The staff are refusing to sign.

The management are then telling them that they are being taken off duties/payroll. Therefore, a total of at least 44 cabin crew members are expected to be off payroll today (Tuesday).

Management is not giving any indication of how long they will be off duties/payroll.

Four cabin crew workers based in Cork, and eight members based in Dublin, were told by the company  last night that they were being taken off duties because they had taken meal breaks while working a series of ‘doubled’ duties after completing in excess of the required working hours.

The workers involved now face investigation by the airline, and it is possible that they will be removed from payroll, following the company’s threat to do so in a letter to cabin crew on January 12th.

The Cork based cabin crew had worked on a series of flights between Cork and London. The Dublin based crew had worked on a series of flights between Dublin and Hamburg. None of the flights involved experienced any delay or disruption. The Cabin Crew branch of IMPACT described the company’s actions as despicable.

Cabin crew staff at Aer Lingus have been engaged in a work to rule since October 12th 2010 without any significant disruption to services.

[mfjoc]

From Aer Lingus's point of view now is the time to have a strike and force the issue.
January is the quietest time of the year.
They waited until the Christmas rush was over.
Looking behind all the waffle from both sides I guess that they are trying to reduce the turn around times to something approaching Ryanair's 25 minutes and thus increase the productivity of each aircraft.
When I booked flights for the Racing game, Ryanair were less than half the price of Aer Lingus.
Guess which I booked?

[sheepshagger]

Once again the unions are holding the company to ransom, with 450,000 unemployed people out there I'm sure there must be people fully capable of training to be cabin crew (or may be ex crew) and who would greatfully work for more that what they get on the dole. These people striking need to appreciate that they have a job in the current climate - thousands of others don't have that luxury.

If AL goes belly up none of these clowns will have jobs - would they actually like to see that happen?

Cue the 'I love unions' fanclub to come in and say they are Ok to strike and distrupt peoples plans

[Rob K]

Your very quick to judge there SS. How would you feel if management were trying to shove change down your neck, maybe change that was unfair. Would you just take it "cause you should be glad to have a job" or would you show some back bone and principle and stand up for your rights. Do you really think workers are going to run the risk of no pay and loosing their jobs Because the ' Unions want to hold the company to ransom'. Cop on and show some solidarity for workers who are being screwed by management.

BTW myself and my wife are booked with Aerlingus on Friday morning back Monday morning and if our flights are affected I know we will be laying the blame entirely with the company.

[sheepshagger]

The unions have been screwing AL for years, its part of the reason their cost base is far to high.

Change is part of life, we all have to deal with it.

[Darce]

I'm no union cheerleader but some of this stuff is scandalous really on the AL side of things.

Like you can turn up for ur flight at 7am and be told that you're not on it anymore and ur first flight is at 10am and now ur finishing date is 3 hours later. Completely f%~king up your day if you arranged to pick up the kids, look after a sick relative, dentist appointment, etc etc etc. They also want to be able to remove your meal breaks and use it as catchup time. Fock that like

I can't for the life of me see how a union would sign up to this type of stuff.

[Smeehank]

Your very quick to judge there SS. How would you feel if management were trying to shove change down your neck, maybe change that was unfair. Would you just take it "cause you should be glad to have a job" or would you show some back bone and principle and stand up for your rights. Do you really think workers are going to run the risk of no pay and loosing their jobs Because the ' Unions want to hold the company to ransom'. Cop on and show some solidarity for workers who are being screwed by management.

BTW myself and my wife are booked with Aerlingus on Friday morning back Monday morning and if our flights are affected I know we will be laying the blame entirely with the company.

I'll be laying the blame entirely with Impact and the small minority of cabin crew who are refusing to operate the new rosters

[Slipper1]

I'm no union cheerleader but some of this stuff is scandalous really on the AL side of things.

Like you can turn up for ur flight at 7am and be told that you're not on it anymore and ur first flight is at 10am and now ur finishing date is 3 hours later. Completely f%~king up your day if you arranged to pick up the kids, look after a sick relative, dentist appointment, etc etc etc. They also want to be able to remove your meal breaks and use it as catchup time. Fock that like

I can't for the life of me see how a union would sign up to this type of stuff.

I think it is clear that I am certainly no union lover, but some of the above info is over the top and I dont think that any of us would just agree to it if "management" told us that's what is happening to our jobs.

The problem that us plebs have is that we get two completely opposing sides (see above press releases) both saying that the other side is at fault and outlining the issues in what is a plainly irresponsible manner that achieves nothing in bring any dispute to an end.

Management is demanding that they sign an undertaking to do anything management instruct them to do in the future

There may be an ounce of truth there, but that's clearly not what is on the table; the language is inflammatory, accusatory (is that a word?) and does no one any benefit in looking for a solution.

To me it seems that AL are forcing the unions hand here in order to bring things to a head. However I was under the impression that this roster issue was sorted by the LRC last year and should have already been put to bed.

[Mackman15]

Just as a by-the-by, one wouldn't want to look at the prices to fly with them to Paris on Friday, back on saturday as a last minute "What the heck, let's go!"
€430 this weekend for something that is €196 the next. I know they'll always hike it but really, that is taking the mick. I'm not at all surprised that they are a company in trouble.

[Rob K]

Just as a by-the-by, one wouldn't want to look at the prices to fly with them to Paris on Friday, back on saturday as a last minute "What the heck, let's go!"
€430 this weekend for something that is €196 the next. I know they'll always hike it but really, that is taking the mick. I'm not at all surprised that they are a company in trouble.

In December I got 2 return flights for A total of €250. It's all relative and Scab Air do the same.

Just so people are clear, crew are not on strike (yet). Management have taken the staff off the roster and sent them home. The staff have shown up to work and are willing to work, just not with the new roster as it is unfair. Therefore the shortage of staff is managements fault.

[sheepshagger]

Agreed it's all supply and demand, every business does it (airlines, hotels, train companies etc).

Hopefully it doesn't affect CDG flights on Friday or the weekend.

Don't agree with your last bit Rob K - will probably just have to agree to disagree.

[Rob K]

Don't agree with your last bit Rob K - will probably just have to agree to disagree.

Agreed

[sportsdude]

Worrying that morning paris flights cancelled for tomorrow..............

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0119/aerlingus.html

[Smeehank]

34 flights cancelled tomorrow

[Smeehank]

Worrying that morning paris flights cancelled for tomorrow..............

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0119/aerlingus.html

First flight of the day cancelled. I'm hoping that is so they can reschedule people on to the other two flights to paris that day. (especially since i'm on the later one)

[ILOVELEINSTER]

Worrying that morning paris flights cancelled for tomorrow..............

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0119/aerlingus.html

First flight of the day cancelled. I'm hoping that is so they can reschedule people on to the other two flights to paris that day. (especially since i'm on the later one)

+1, Heart sank when I read 34 flights cancelled! But thankfully, still good for the evening flight.
Fingers crossed everybody gets out as planned( and home again!!)

[Slipper1]

Have booked extra Ryanair flight home on Sat leaving Beauvais at 22.20; just in case AL decide to cancel my afternoon flight home.

With 10 flights cancelled today and 34 tomorrow I think this will get worse before it gets better.

Cost €115, but better than being stuck in Paris. Slightly annoyed, but not distraught.

[Rob K]

Very worried now. We're on the AL Friday morning flight to Paris. The corresponding flight tomorrow is cancelled. Wonder if they are facilitating passengers on other flights.

Hope management get their fingers out of their holes and revert the the f**king roster that was working last week!!

[Slipper1]

Very worried now. We're on the AL Friday morning flight to Paris. The corresponding flight tomorrow is cancelled. Wonder if they are facilitating passengers on other flights.

Hope management get their fingers out of their holes and revert the the f**king roster that was working last week!!

I would hope that if there is two flights a day, then they cancel the earlier one. However I don't know the criteria for deciding on cancellations.

I would think that there are about 600 fans travelling over, split between maybe 8 flights over 2 days with at least 3 carriers. Combine this with regular traffic, I'd say the flights are pretty jammed, so no space to transfer into.

On reflection, I'd think that my 1430hrs AL flight home on Sat will probably go, but I booked the second one to be sure to be sure.