Possible Aer Lingus strikes

MrEko

Basically I'm worried about any possible strikes at Aer Lingus as I'm due to travel to Chicago on december 20th. I'm going over to see my girlfriend who I havent seen in person since the beginning of August. As you can imagine the current situation involving the baggage handlers and the trade unions has me quite worried.

I'm just wondering what are the chances of striking and how bad will they be? Surely they would not go on full work stoppages.

gaz wac

Me too

Going to Seattle on the 20th Dec, but Aer Lingus flight to Heathrow first. Priced around today and saw flights to Luton with Ryanair for €50, might get them just in case Aer Lingus fecks my plans up !! :mad:

highlydebased

gaz_wac, BMI also fly Dublin-Heathrow

It is most likely that they will try to hold the strike around Christmas to cause the most disturbance.

AA also fly Dublin-Chicago

MrEko

Thing is I've had my tickets for months, not about to throw €600 down the drain until I know for sure

FlutterinBantam

Hmmm my sources tell me the unrest may well begin around end Nov.

Don't want to panic people, but I see a bitter one here.

Cutie18Ireland

This is not good news for me off to Disneyland Paris on 24th till 29th if this is only starting on the 24th what are the chances of a 7am flight being ok?? not so worried about coming home lol

copacetic

they served 14 days strike notice today:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1110/breaking8.htm

once that 14 is up they could strike at any time, but prob not until management mkes a move.

FlutterinBantam

Cutie18Ireland wrote: »

This is not good news for me off to Disneyland Paris on 24th till 29th if this is only starting on the 24th what are the chances of a 7am flight being ok?? not so worried about coming home lol

Very difficult to say, suggest you listen to the news between now and then.

If I was a betting man I would imagine you would be fine, but really it depends on whatever strategy is adopted.

Hope it works out.

alpha2zulu

To quote the frontpage of the current EI website:

What are you waiting for?

perhaps I'm waiting for all sides involved to get a grip on themselves. if EI ever does go under, it won't be because of fuel prices/recession/war etc, it will be because of shoddy management at the top and a militant malitia of trade unionists who are stuck in a time warp. Have they ever considered sending their CV''s to Cubana perhaps instead and leave the rest of us, the travelling public alone?

I,m an EI fan and until now have always tried to fly with them where possible, but with these sort of shenanigans in the pipeline, my confidence in the outfit is very low

jackofalltrades

MrEko wrote:

Basically I'm worried about any possible strikes at Aer Lingus as I'm due to travel to Chicago on december 20th. I'm going over to see my girlfriend who I havent seen in person since the beginning of August. As you can imagine the current situation involving the baggage handlers and the trade unions has me quite worried.

I feel you're pain, i'm flying to Dublin from Orlando on the 23rd of December.

In the event of a strike(touch wood it doesn't happen), do you get booked on another airline?

FlutterinBantam

Not automatically, it would depend on EI's attitude and whether it was known in advance and stuff.Strikes are always messy and don't generally fall into any definite passenger service "slot".
Again I certainly cannot predict what will happen and best bet is to liaise closely with EI and listen to the news.

Best of luck anyway.

lovepink_xo

i am flying out in a few days and back on the 26th...what happens me if they go on strike? will i be left waiting a few weeks til its settled? will i be sent home on another aircraft? will i get to go home? im so confused

FlutterinBantam

1) There are to be talks on the IR issues tomorrow Wed. with the National
Implementation Body, a part of the Taoiseach's Office that intervenes when
the other industrial relations machinery is not effective and a major
dispute is threatened. Last year on 17 November it intervened and strike
action was deferred, initially for two weeks, and an agreement of sorts was
eventually reached.


Listen for results of that.

Mr Benevolent

Anybody hear what happened?

FlutterinBantam

Next Monday 17 Nov, should be some report on ways to avoid strike action from the NIB.

You should get a feel about what both parties think from that.

diverdriver

They always dance this dance, in truth a strike is unlikely as it suits nobody. The unions need the threat to show their serious. Management even need to threat to concentrate the minds of the workers. This game is played out again and again with Aer Lingus.

In any it really depends on who strikes. If cargo go on strike it hardly matters. Loaders are another issue. No point in panicking yet. Any strike if it happens will be short. The airline couldn't survive more than a few days shutdown. Everyone involved knows that.

FlutterinBantam

Bit more than a dance this time Diver, get the feeling its "drifters time"

it's shít or bust this time and it's not just baggage handlers it's clerical as well, it's the future for all Dublin/Cork/Shannon ground staff so if the mgmnt are totally committed,and they seem to be, it ain't no dance.

diverdriver

Dance it is, dance of death maybe. From what I hear though a lot of people want to take the lump sum. People voting with their feet. The unions may want to hang onto their old powerbase but it's all over and they know it. If the clerical staff went on strike, no one would notice.

If Aer Lingus closed down, it would be sad in a way. But they'd be replaced instantly.

FlutterinBantam

diverdriver wrote: »

Dance it is, dance of death maybe. From what I hear though a lot of people want to take the lump sum. People voting with their feet. The unions may want to hang onto their old powerbase but it's all over and they know it. If the clerical staff went on strike, no one would notice.

If Aer Lingus closed down, it would be sad in a way. But they'd be replaced instantly.

other that there would be no one to check in/board passengers/handle operations/process transferring passengers/dispatch flights/trace missing bagage and other small things.

maherball

Right I am also in the same boat as the OP wanna fly to Chicago to see my girlfriend who I've not seen since the 7th september, but the strike threat is one reason as to why I'm wary of booking, I like flying aer lingus but will fly AA if I have to

diverdriver

Told you so:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1120/aerlingus.html

It's always the same. I didn't spend 14 years working in an Aer Lingus subsidiary without learning how it works.

There'll be plenty of redundancies though, I'll bet.