Galway Airport workers vote for strike action
galway |
worker & community struggles and protests |
news report 
Tuesday October 21, 2008 12:34
by Airport Worker
SIPTU members at Galway Airport have voted decisively for industrial action because of the airport management’s decision to impose cuts to workers's hours rather than work through the normal industrial relations process.
Commenting on the outcome of the vote, SIPTU official Paul Gavan said “Management’s decision to impose these changes has left our members with no option but to vote for strike action.
Our members understand the need to formulate a plan to make savings in the airport's expenditure. However a plan that asks only the workers at the coalface to take pain while leaving the terms and conditions of the airport's very large and extensive management team untouched is not a fair plan. Management's failure to engage meaningfully with our members has lead directly to the decision to vote for strike action.
Galway Airport is in annual receipt of substantial state funding. It relies on taxpayers' money to survive, grow and prosper. Taxpayers money should not be spent in order to protect existing terms of employment for management while savage cuts to airport workers are being imposed.
In the absence of a revised plan from management and constructive talks industrial action will commence in the coming days. We expect such action will have a significant impact on the airport as virtually all of the staff excluding management are members of SIPTU.
We will be informing the airport's only customer -- Aer Arann -- of our decision. Action will commence upon completion of the required notice period of 7 days to management which was issued today. Our members are due to meet this coming Thursday to determine the scope, nature and timing of the industrial action."
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7The article above says a lot about the union and its members knowledge of the airport. The last time I traveled through there was a lot more than one customer. What about the flying club ? The helicopters based there? The private jets ? Either the author has no clue of the airport and its operations or has changed the facts in the article to suit themselves.
7 Inbound scheduled flights listed today on the Galway Airport website, I'd love to know what the 'coalface' workers get up to in the 2 and 3 hour gaps between flights?
Iam one of the fire crew at Galway airport, the fire crew have various jobs at galway airport which keeps them plenty busy. They opperate as security at search combs,they process all the bags after checkin and load the bags onto the aircraft,they have daily checks on all airfield vehicles,birdscaring, starting up aircraft,boarding passengers at boarding gates,car park duties including clamping and picking up papers,fueling all aircraft including FLYING club,lifting disabled off aircraft,painting staff rooms and airfield equipment,runway inspections, checking firefighting equipment and vehicles, toilet service on aircraft, cleaning aircraft, mowing the grass, scrubbing staff room and toilets nightly, fire training, run errands to businesses,de ice aircraft, hot refulling of emeregency aircraft,work awnsering phones in reception and whatever they can squeese out of you. There's plenty to do cheers.
They want to have 5 fire crew preform this and put 7 on 20 hour weeks. 5.30am - 9.30 am and back at 5.30 pm- 11.30 pm. twice a week.The 7 picked paid E1,500 to train at galway airport for the job not realising that they would be picking up papers in the car park.Hopefully there wont ever be an incident at the airport as when called to respond they will prob be asleep fatigued after being awake fo 19 hours. CRIMINAL.
Since the new MD arrived they stopped the christmass bonus if you were ever late 15 mins,offered only 500 for the xmass staff party of 65 people causing it to be cancelled,scrapped the xmass roster which had run successfully for years so people could have a few days with their familys,cut all overtime,cut shift swops and now the 20 hour week without consultation,
YOU KNOW FECK ALL my friend
Hi, I fully understand the nature of the concerns the cut backs will cause and my sympathies are with any of the staff who are affected by any changes, however on a selfish note, i've been planning a holiday for three years, i've saved what i could and lived a very basic life over those three years to afford to take me and my family away for two weeks on the holiday of a life time. My trip begins at Galway airport on Friday morning to join a connecting flight in Dublin, has there been any agreement if strike action will go ahead? We can always get a bus to Dublin to make that flight but from what i've read there will be no decision until a meeting on Thursday so if strike action proceeds on Friday i could be stuck at the airport, i've paid for the flights so don't really want to get a bus if possible,has any one heard anything? Again apologies for the selfishness of this request against the seriousness of the situation but i'll bet the MD at aer arann wasn't to concerned about me the customer when he announced the cut backs.
Hi there ,
Put your worries to bed and enjoy your holiday there will be no action before friday. The management decided to see a morsel of common sense for a change and have agreed to meet with the labour relations committee on the 6th Nov in relation to the cut backs. Hopefully a compromise can be achieved and industrial action can be averted. Failing this your return journey may be affected but at least you'll have had your holiday and the worst case scenario is alternate transport from Dublin.
I would like to point out that our grievance isn't with the md of Aerarann Padraig O'Ceidigh who is conducting his redundancies in a fair and open manner. The problem is the airport workers who comprise of fire fighters, check in staff, security and the retail outlets. The md and his partner in crime are two people who's relentless ambition to harass and bully staff has come to a head. These people have been employed by the Galway chamber of commerce who's inaction against these individuals shows their complete lack of balls in dealing with bad management.
There are two councillors on the board and they don't even have the manners to comment to the media on the current mess. These people should be avoided at election time as they have proven themselves as people who burry their heads in the sand at the first sign of adversity. The "partner in crime" tried unsuccessfully to buy the airport from under the chambers nose years ago and they didn't have the sense to get rid of him ( prob due to his "special" relationship with a chamber member) not to mention all the taxpayers money wasted on ridiculous projects. A member of the transport ministry should audit the airport and there should be an enquiry into wasted money.
Sorry to tire you with the politics of the airport i could go on for ever,
Hope you have a great holiday
The ordinary airport worker has been badly let down by SIPTU in this process, we started off in a situation where a number of staff were going to have to accept reduced hours, (ME INCLUDED) The union spat out their dummy and balloted to strike as management wasnt taking any hit in hours or pay, so the union and the management go to negotiate and our wonderful union negotiate redundancies , Loosing 20 hours pay was bad but now I might loose my job through redundancies. I cant understand how they managed to negotiate a reduction in hours for some staff to redundancies for even more staff, we have gone from a bad situation to a far far worse one,
I have a horrible feeling one of our union reps WHO WAS ON THE LIST FOR REDUCED HOURS , has done nothing but save his own skin at the expense of the rest of us.
I travel to Ireland quite regularly (7-8 times a year). I'm due to fly over again in middle of August. What's the chances of there being a strike? Due to disabilty, I am unable to keep going back & forth to my departing airport. Thanks.
That was two years ago. Don't worry about it.
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