SITPU MEMBERS AT Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority are to be balloted on potential industrial action over a pensions dispute.
The upcoming vote follows a meeting of staff yesterday evening at which the union members also called on the trustees of the pension scheme to resign.
They claim that employers have failed to engage in meaningful discussions on the deficit in the Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme (IASS).
The SIPTU members have also decided to ballot to withhold both the employer and employee contributions to the scheme.
The decision comes a month after SIPTU said that Aer Lingus had threatened them with legal action if they went ahead with a ballot.
“There is extreme anger now among the employees of Aer Lingus, DAA and the Shannon Airport Authority,” said SIPTU organiser, Dermot O’Loughlin.
After three years of an industrial relations process the pensions crisis, if anything, has worsened at a time when financial market conditions are improving. The membership has said that it can neither afford, nor tolerate, hard earned money going into a scheme from which they may never see any value in the future.
The ballot on industrial action will be inclusive of strike action with SIPTU calling on Aer Lingus, DAA and the Shannon Airport Authority to make discussions on the IASS a priority.
“Failure to do so will unfortunately lead to very significant industrial episodes at Ireland’s international airports,” said O’Loughlin.
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