Around 500 Aer Lingus pilots, making up a significant portion of the total 766 crew, participated in a protest march at Dublin Airport on a rainy Saturday. This action was orchestrated by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (Ialpa) and included an eight-hour strike starting at 5am. According to Ialpa president Capt Mark Tighe, the robust turnout, despite the poor weather, demonstrated the pilots’ confidence in the validity of their wage claims.
The collective demand by IALPA is for wage increments of over 20%. While this claim has been moderated during the ongoing negotiations for nearly 22 months, the sticking point remains the cost implication for Aer Lingus. Ialpa estimates the increase would lead to additional yearly expenses of less than €5 million, but Aer Lingus counters that the figure would be closer to €40 million.
Capt Tighe expressed the hope that the upcoming Labour Court hearing scheduled for Monday would bring a resolution to this prolonged dispute. This disagreement has forced numerous flight cancellifications, nearly 400 in total, with 120 specifically resulting from Saturday’s strike which lasted from 5am to 1pm.
With last Thursday’s negotiations failing, the Labour Court took the initiative to intervene in this critically evolving situation as Ialpa prepared to intensify its industrial action. Union members have already imposed a strict work-to-rule policy from Wednesday, seriously hampering Aer Lingus’s operational flexibility and ability to fly its full holiday schedule.
The airline had to call off 392 flights until Sunday, July 7th due to the measure and Saturday’s halt, disrupting the plans of an approximated 70,000 travellers. The disagreement will be brought to the Labour Court for the third time on Monday. Aer Lingus and Ilapa last met the court individually on Tuesday, yet this attempt did not succeed in settling the conflict.