Ex. Aer Lingus Chief Executive Willy Walsh is spectacularly proving in Heathrow T5 this weekend gone that airlines need staff. Not even £4.3billion alone makes it work, you need workers, working in their jobs to get the job done. Slashing the workforce, removing previously bargained conditions & taking money from workers pay packets does not get the job done. People (17 million more this decade to last) want to fly places and while Dublin Airport is 4-5X busier the previous Aer Lingus slash & burn plans of Walsh & Cahill has left the staff numbers well short of what they used to be. But still 5X busier.
RTE reports tonight
Last year, Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion promised shareholders that he would implement the staff cost savings from the beginning of 2008.
However, so far none of the proposed measures have materialised because of ongoing negotiations over new work practices and rostering.
SIPTU workers have voted 3:1 in favour of keeping their existing work practices (3:1 against new work practices)
If managements need to cut costs is so out of touch with reality that it leads to a lockout or strike then Mannion should step aside. Take the airline back out of the hands of the sharks on the markets and keep on flying. Remember Ryanair own 4% more than the Governments 25% stake in the airline. CEO’s job is to deliver a working airline, in chasing cost cutting to please shareholders (not the working shareholders) Mannion may end up without a job himself.