Dublin Airport maintenance crew to vote on strike action   

Two trade unions which represent craft workers at Dublin Airport are planning to ballot for industrial action over plans by daa to outsource maintenance jobs.

Connect Trade Union members employed as maintenance workers at the Airport say they will ballot on industrial action, up to and including strike action, if management proceed with an attempt to outsource their roles to third party companies.

Unite, which represents craft workers at Dublin Airport Authority, has written to the daa informing them of the decision, taken at a General Meeting of members, to ballot for industrial action up to and including a full withdrawal of labour.

Connect Regional Secretary, Sean Heading, said:

“The daa threat results from a dispute between management and our members concerning an attempt to force them to adopt work practice changes without agreement.

“To threaten workers with an end to their employment unless they accept changes is not a proper manner in which to conduct industrial relations.”

Connect Assistant General Secretary, Brian Nolan, said: “We believe that this semi-state company is seeking to use the crisis in the aviation industry, which has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic and the failure of the Government to adequately response to its impact on the sector, to destroy highly professional good jobs. Our members are greatly angered by this management approach.

“The issues at Dublin Airport go well beyond this one company as not confronting management’s actions directly would set a dangerous precedence for workers throughout the economy as it begins to emerge from the crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. We believe using such a crisis to enforce a strategy of outsourcing employment is cynical and abhorrent, particularly when it is considered that the daa is a semi-state company.

“What is at stake at Dublin Airport is the shape of work in our economy following the pandemic. Will it include the expansion of less secure, lower quality precarious employment further into all sectors? Or will we seek to build a more equitable and sustainable model of work relations.”

Unite Regional Officer Willie Quigley said daa management has done a ‘complete U-turn.’

“Throughout this process, I would contend that the daa has failed to be upfront with our members,” he said.

“Following confirmation of Unite’s acceptance of LCR 22381, management has suddenly declared its refusal to implement the recommendation and voluntary severance.

“The company is now in contravention of a recommendation which they originally accepted.

“Instead of engaging in good faith, the company has demanded that future engagement be limited to the single topic of outsourcing our members’ work to a third-party service provider.  It is our members’ strong view that the company’s sole focus is on advancing its outsourcing agenda – an agenda which we are not prepared to accept.

“Under current dispute resolution procedures, the company is obliged to engage with Unite on its withdrawal of options and its refusal to implement LCR 22381.

“Given the company’s behaviour and their decision to ignore a Labour Court recommendation, our members yesterday mandated Unite to ballot for industrial action up to and including a full withdrawal of labour.

“Resolution of this dispute is in the hands of the daa:  Management must stand by its own acceptance of the Labour Court recommendation, including voluntary severance arrangements, and engage with Unite in good faith.  Otherwise, they face the prospect of industrial action”, Mr Quigley concluded.

The decision of daa workers to ballot for industrial action is ‘a difficult one’ but ‘one which must be supported by all’, according to local Independents4Change Councillor Dean Mulligan and MEP Clare Daly.

Councillor Mulligan said: “For months now Daa maintenance workers who time and again have made sacrifices in terms of pay and conditions to make the company the success that it is, have been facing relentless bullying and harassment from management to  accept brutal changes in work practices, a wish list of everything they have ever wanted, using Covid as an excuse.

“Many have already had their pay and hours cut by 40% in a ruthless attempt to batter them into submission and now despite workers unions engaging to work with the company on an agreed solution, the company, using Transfer of Undertakings (TUPE) legislation.

“Despite this the DAA announced that it will move these workers to a new company.

“Many have worked for decades for the daa.

“Outsourcing their jobs to a private company is not acceptable.

“It’s in everyone’s interests to support these workers and urge that management pull back.”

Meanwhile speaking from Brussels, Clare Daly MEP said:

“What is happening in the daa is a disgrace.

“Aviation received substantial assistance from the Exchequer during Covid.

“In February alone, the daa secured €40 million from the ISIF pandemic recovery fund.

“There have been many discussions in the European Parliament about the funds which were made available from the EU in loans and grants, that these should be made only on the basis of ensuring a socially responsible recovery, and not facilitate a race to the bottom.

“This call was especially made in relation to aviation.

“That a company which has received such support from taxpayers for dealing with the fallout of the pandemic, would use that pandemic to bring in every work practice change it had ever dreamed of, without engaging with workers trade unions and taking on board their suggestions will not be tolerated. I will be raising this matter in the European Parliament when it returns after the summer recess & with the European Commission.

“I strongly call on the daa to pull back from its unilateral action, and negotiate properly with the trade unions.”