Work stoppage cancels flights
Source: Agencies |
January 22, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MORE than 150 flights in and out of Ireland were canceled on Wednesday as air traffic controllers staged a four-hour walkout in a bid for higher pay - and warned that more shutdowns of Ireland's runways were likely.
Government, business leaders and many would-be passengers condemned the controllers' protest as selfish at a time when cash-strapped Ireland is battling record debts, cutting pay and slashing jobs.
The government's minister for trade and commerce, Billy Kelleher, said the controllers' decision to shut down the runways at the nation's three main airports had ruined travel plans for 20,000 people and was "further undermining Ireland's economic viability and reputation."
But the protesters' union spokesman, Michael Landers, said that unless employers backed down, "there will be further work stoppages, and we do expect that to happen sooner rather than later."
The Irish Aviation Authority employs 300 controllers at Ireland's airports in Dublin, Cork and Shannon. In 2007, the authority promised the controllers a 6 percent raise.
But the authority put that raise on hold until at least 2012 when Ireland's deepening recession unraveled the wage pact. It also asked controllers to begin making payments into their own guaranteed pension funds, a sacrifice already made by most sectors of the Irish workforce.
The controllers' union, Impact, says the controllers won't agree to contribute.
Government, business leaders and many would-be passengers condemned the controllers' protest as selfish at a time when cash-strapped Ireland is battling record debts, cutting pay and slashing jobs.
The government's minister for trade and commerce, Billy Kelleher, said the controllers' decision to shut down the runways at the nation's three main airports had ruined travel plans for 20,000 people and was "further undermining Ireland's economic viability and reputation."
But the protesters' union spokesman, Michael Landers, said that unless employers backed down, "there will be further work stoppages, and we do expect that to happen sooner rather than later."
The Irish Aviation Authority employs 300 controllers at Ireland's airports in Dublin, Cork and Shannon. In 2007, the authority promised the controllers a 6 percent raise.
But the authority put that raise on hold until at least 2012 when Ireland's deepening recession unraveled the wage pact. It also asked controllers to begin making payments into their own guaranteed pension funds, a sacrifice already made by most sectors of the Irish workforce.
The controllers' union, Impact, says the controllers won't agree to contribute.
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