Article from the Sept. 2006 issue of the Socialist
newspaper of the Socialist Party, Irish section of the CWI

Aer Lingus: Sold off and sold out

By Councillor Clare Daly

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the government and Aer Lingus management that the sale of a majority shareholding in the national airline will proceed at the end of September exposes their total contempt for the airline’s workforce and the general public. They have no mandate from the electorate, only 35% of people in a recent opinion poll believed that it was the right move, and not a single worker has voted in favour of privatisation, yet they press on.

Not a single valid argument has been put forward to support the sale. Here is a company which has been in existence for 70 years, providing relatively decent, permanent, pensionable jobs to tens of thousands of workers, and throughout its history a net contributor to the exchequer, which is now being given away for nothing.

With the minimum share price set at €10,000 against the backdrop of insecurity in the aviation market and high oil prices, it is clear the only beneficiaries will be the vested interests in the background. This is a political decision designed to undermine the semi-state sector and line the pockets of big business. Privatisation doesn’t work. B&I Continental Line used to be the state shipping company, it became Irish Ferries, and the rest is history in terms of workers’ jobs and conditions. The last IPO in Telecom left the Irish taxpayer with a telecommunications infrastructural deficit.

Yet the Aer Lingus announcement was met by silence from IMPACT and an appeal from SIPTU for the government to reconsider. The reality is that the government’s announcement has clearly exposed the charade of consultation with staff. Instead of appealing to Fianna Fail and the PDs to reconsider, the unions should have called immediate strike action, as the only way to halt this sabotage and protect the interests of the staff and taxpayer. Their failure to take decisive action, and a clear lead in exposing this theft of an important state asset has served to demoralise and disorientate the staff. Such a stance would have won huge support from the general public and particularly from the rest of the semi-state workforce who face similar attacks in the future. This could have put the gutless hypocrites that make up the Fianna Fail backbenches under huge pressure with an election in the next year.

Instead they produced a document entitled- "So Now It’s Over To You, "- the conclusion of the talks that were held on pay and pensions. When staff asked what was being done to halt privatisation, they were told that the union had made its opposition clear, but that the government were going ahead. Small wonder that the staff renamed the document "So Now It’s Over". After ten years of constant threats of privatisation, outsourcing, work practise changes, reductions in staff numbers and so on, staff have no confidence in the union’s willingness to lead any sort of struggle.

Despite empty assurances from management, the privatisation of Aer Lingus will in time lead to a new assault on the jobs, pensions, wages and conditions of its staff. The current leaders of SIPTU and IMPACT have shown that they are completely inadequate for the task of defending the rights of the workforce under privatisation. Now more than ever, Aer Lingus workers need to be in control of their unions not the overpaid officials who are guilty of doing little to stop the hand over of this company to profiteers.



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