One may have assumed, upon arriving at Dublin Airport early yesterday morning, that a funeral was taking place there, reports RTE.
With rain falling and another dawn breaking over the airfield, hundreds of people holding dark umbrellas and dressed in black marched across the complex in relative silence, with stone-faced looks.
It looked like a cortege, but luckily no one had perished.
Instead, there was the melancholy sight of Aer Lingus pilots exercising their right to strike in protest of their employer’s unwillingness to accede to their demand for a 24% salary raise. The pilots were dressed nicely in their full dark coloured uniforms, complete with caps, reports RTE.
The parties have reached their breaking point after two years of correspondence on that wage increase.
The impasse has not been resolved despite face-to-face negotiations, an internal pay tribunal, meetings before the Workplace Relations Commission, or the Labour Court.
As a result, the pilots have turned the heat up a notch or two under the direction of their union, the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA).
The rigorous work to rule, no overtime or any out-of-hours work requested by management, only working published rosters, no login into work systems, and no answering calls outside of work hours were all implemented last Wednesday when they started indefinite industrial action, reports RTE.
To demonstrate their strength even further, they staged an eight-hour work stoppage yesterday to show the airline’s management just how strong they are.
Passengers have suffered greatly as a result, especially because it happened right before families leave for summer vacations that they had been saving for and anticipating all year.
Up to the next week, 390 flights have already been formally cancelled, including 120 yesterday during the labour stoppage.
The purpose of such cancellations was to allow Aer Lingus to ensure that other services would continue to run as scheduled, reports RTE.
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