Workplace News
Aer Lingus privatisation - A disaster for workers & travelling public

---

Cllr. Clare Daly, SIPTU Aer Lingus Shop Steward

The hyprocrites in the business community and the media, along with politicians from the right-wing parties know no shame. Having egged on the government from the sidelines to privatise Aer Lingus, they are now bemoaning the fact that the cut-throat management at the company are putting the interests of the private owners above the necessity of providing an important service to the travelling public from Shannon.

The government’s so-called commitment to the “national interest” with the retention of a 25% shareholding has been exposed as a cynical con to get them over the election.

The reality is that the debacle at Aer Lingus is a direct result of their privatisation and a graphic example of the bankruptcy of capitalism. The Shannon-Heathrow service is profitable, carrying over 300,000 passengers a year and playing a pivotal role in the economic development of the region. Yet it and 50 of its workers are being sacrificed on the altar of profit.

Opening a base from Belfast to Heathrow is not about greater growth potential as Aer Lingus management are claiming - it is about making an historic break in the operation of Aer Lingus as a national carrier. If slots can be moved from Shannon to Belfast, then there is nothing to stop them being moved from Dublin to Riga. Opening bases in different jurisdictions is their route to a race to the bottom. It is the Irish Ferries scenario all over again.

The company’s so-called Program for Continuous Improvement- PCI07, which outlined pay-cuts amounting to thousands of euro for each worker, in return for a longer-working day was due to be introduced in August. It hasn’t gone away it has just taken a back seat to the Shannon-Belfast situation.

In fact these moves are all part of the same process. Aer Lingus workers in Belfast will be on significantly lower wages and conditions than Aer Lingus employees on the rest of the island. There are developed plans to open another base in Eastern Europe and in the more medium term in the United States.

This is a vicious assault on hard fought terms and conditions of employment in pursuit of ever greater profitability for the shareholder and in the name of competition.

Big business and the establishment parties will not come up with a solution to solve these problems in favour of the Aer Lingus workforce. So far the main Aer Lingus unions have said nothing and done less. But the only way to take on this agenda is to organise the workforce collectively to take on Aer Lingus management and stop their anti-worker agenda through action.

Workplace News
"Coke is it?" - Not if you live in Drogheda!

---

The Socialist

COCA COLA, one of the worlds’ largest multinationals is closing its bottling plant in Drogheda with the loss of 256 jobs.

Coca Cola are planning to close the Drogheda plant in September 2008 and outsource the work to Athy and a non-union establishment in Ballina, where wages and conditions are substantially less. This is one of the latest in a line of multinational companies to lay off well pay workers in order to increase their profits. Of course Coca Cola’s shareholders are stuck for cash, as they only made $5.5 billion in profits last year!

The closure announcement prompted an outbreak of fake anger and consternation from the great and the good of the area in the local press, not least the town's Fine Gael Mayor Anthony Donohue. Councillor Donohue was "so incensed" by the announcement that he suspended the regular monthly Drogheda Borough Council meeting to instead organise a special conference of local TDs, IDA, Enterprise Ireland, FAS, Drogheda Chamber of Commerce and local trade union reps in a grandiose publicity stunt.

Socialist Party member and Drogheda Trades Council Secretary Frank Gallagher proposed that the meeting issue a formal public statement in support of the workers and their families. However Drogheda's Fine Gael Mayor refused point blank telling the meeting that "it would be unwise to upset the company at a very delicate time".

SIPTU's North East Branch Organiser, John King, said: “Coca Cola is one of the principal employers in Drogheda and the closure of the plant will have far reaching consequences for the community, as there is very little alternative employment in the area”. The loss of the 256 well paid jobs will have a knock on effect throughout the area and lead to further job losses in other businesses in the town.

Coca Cola are renowned for their anti-union activities in other countries and have been involved in the assasination of trade unionists in Guatemala and Colombia. So it comes as no surprise that they would sack 256 trade unionists to move the work to a non-union plant.

As has been the case with recent job losses in the manufacturing sector the union leaders have failed to give any leadership to the workforce. Tied up in a “social partnership” with the very bosses of the multinationals who are making their members redundant SIPTUs leaders have abandoned the idea of fighting to save jobs.

Instead they concentrate on getting “good” redundancy payments and working with government agencies to try to attract alternative employers. The stark reality is that any new companies which set up in the Drogheda area will not create jobs that pay the same level of wages as the workers receive at Coca Cola.