Coalition's Aer Lingus sell out

     

``We were told nothing about these strategic objectives''. These are the words of Paul O'Sullivan, secretary of SIPTU's civil aviation branch at Dublin Airport. Workers at Aer Lingus and its maintenance subsidiary are facing - like their public sector colleagues at Telecom before them - the prospect of privatisation.

Aer Lingus management is actively seeking what they call a ``strategic alliance'' for the airline, while management at TEAM Aer Lingus is seeking buyers for a majority share of the facility built with massive funding from taxpayers' money. Now that the TEAM facility is set to become profitable it is to be sold off to the private sector, the losses of previous years paid off by the state.

Whatever about the prospects of selling off TEAM the prospect of a partial sell-off of part of Aer Lingus is daunting. There is a range of possible bidders but leading the pack for a slice of the Irish airline is British Airways.

The industrial relations record of British Airways is appalling. Already this year management engineered one strike as part of its attempts to deunionise the British Airways workforce. Union officials and members working at the airline have been victimised by management who have tried to force workers to accept individual contracts.

British Airways workers were sent letters telling them how management would help them break the strike, sneaking them past pickets and housing them in hotels in Heathrow airport. Now the same management is being considered as partners for Aer Lingus.

The SIPTU workers at Aer Lingus are angry at management's lack of consultation and are seeking a meeting with Public Enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke. Ultimately the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat government is responsible for the Aer Lingus jobs.

In the last four years £175 million of state aid has been put into the company. If the coalition is prepared to sell off what is essentially the taxpayer's investment in the national airline it doesn't bode well for the range of other privatisation plans currently under consideration. The government must face up to the fact that sell-offs of state companies are in fact a sell out. Privatisation is not progress.

Dunnes workers ``refuse to be walked on''

 
Unions at Dunnes Stores announced this week that they will ballot their 6000 members on taking limited industrial action between now and Christmas. The ballot of MANDATE, SIPTU and MPGWU workers begins next Monday. It was prompted by the refusal of Dunnes management to accept Labour Court judgements made last August which require management to pay special staff overtime rates for Sunday working during the busy Christmas period.

The Labour Court recommended that Dunnes workers hired before October 1994 would get a package worth triple the basic rate for Sunday working. The payments would be made in the form of overtime rates and paid time off. Dunnes workers hired after October 1994 when this now annual dispute started will get double the basic rate for working on Sundays. Dunnes had originally attempted to make Sunday working obligatory and pay no overtime for that day.

MANDATE national official Maurice Sheehan told An Phoblacht ``We wanted to show the company that we refuse to be walked on. We are sorry for the difficulties this places shoppers in during the run up to Christmas but the blame for this dispute lies at the door of the company''.

The ballot will take some weeks to complete and Dunnes unions have yet to decide on what form of limited industrial action to take. It is highly likely though that such action could be in the form of limited one-day stoppages. MANDATE's Maurice Sheehan also stressed to An Phoblacht that they are still ready to discuss the Sunday issue with Dunnes management. It seems that four years on Dunnes are still failing to learn the basics of industrial relations. More ironic is that their current ad campaign proclaims ``the difference is we're Irish''. The real difference is that their main competitors all pay a Christmas Sunday rate.


Bosses wage hike


Just when you thought it was safe to forget about just how big the gap is between the bosses and their wage slaves, Inbucon, a private consultancy group, bounce back with their latest survey on Executive Salaries and Fringe Benefits in Ireland. It makes fascinating reading.

Inbucon surveyed 2,214 executives and found that salaries increased by an average of 6.25% during the 12 months between July 1996 and July `97. Inflation during the same time period was 1.4%. Compare this with Central Statistics Office figures which show that average wage increases enjoyed by ordinary workers were less than half the increases enjoyed by their managers during the same period.

Salaries in the top 25% of executives averaged around £88,000. When fringe cash benefits are included this figure jumps to £110,000. The privileges of this executive elite do not end here. There are the bonus schemes enjoyed by executives, which averaged almost 60% of their basic salaries. Add to this the free medical insurance being provided for 54.8% of managing directors, the life assurance for 77.4%, the subsidised lunches for 31.2% and the telephone allowance for 48.4%.

Finally it should come as no surprise to hear that a Mercedes is the favourite choice of car for Irish managing directors followed by a Saab.

Corner cutting in the Celtic Tiger


The fallout from the downside of the Celtic Tiger building boom was shown this week when a High Court judge in Dublin ordered the closure of an apartment block building site in the city.

The High Court order came after a construction worker was killed in an accident at the Zoe Developments site. James Masterson was the third person to die on a Zoe site since 1991. Justice Kelly said the company had shown ``shocking heedlessness'' and that the company had an appalling safety record.

Zoe is the not the only building company to have site accidents. However the allegation that safety regulations are being ignored in a period where the building sector is enjoying a prolonged boom is damning. There is never any excuse for ignoring safety regulations and endangering the lives of workers, but when huge profits are being made selling the apartments constructed by these builders, reckless and deadly corner cutting by their employers is shameful.