Aer Lingus Flight Crew Industrial relations thread 2024

What do you not understand?

I was saying that pilot pay increases being to the detriment of other staff groups is not true, and in fact beneficial for other staff groups as I've been informed...

what date is likely for strike action?

Well clearly you're the expert then 🙄 Just ignore Aer Lingus own publicly stated strategy of being a trans Atlantic carrier and growing connections. They overnight aircraft, offer business class on TA and Aerospace in European routes, have a frequent flyer club, lounges etc etc. Sure, exactly the same as ryanair.

You clearly have an agenda.

Fully agree.

Please play the ball and not the man.

Having flown both short haul and long haul I can not even begin to tell you how wrong you are with this statement, definitely not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.

They don't have to up the prices, they can also keep the prices the same for the passengers and absorb the cost increase be accepting lower profits. I think that is what the pilots' spokesman probably meant when he said something along the line that they wanted a pay increase instead of the money going to the shareholders.

Think of that what you want but I think that's fair enough. At least 50% of the pay increase will be paid to the Irish government in taxes. The shareholders would pay way less tax and probably not even in Ireland.

It's a network airline offering connections (approx 50% of TA traffic feeds to/from Europe) versus a point to point low cost carrier. If you want to be successful long haul you need to offer business class and lounges, FF benefits etc. Just because they both fly many of the same routes like Málaga etc does not make FR and EI the same. Maybe educate yourself on the differences before coming on here spouting absolute drivel like it's the truth.

On the contrary, it'll end very quickly when govt and other vested interests in Irish tourism economy need an agreement reached. We're at the towel swinging in the dressing room stage of IR conflicts.

maybe they’ll work it like they do public sector pay deals and give them ~70% of what they are looking for and spread it over 2.5 years

would IALPA accept ~18% over 2.5 years or are they actually looking for an instant 24% pay rise?

It's not excessive, it's merely keeping place with inflation and matching the average pay increase in Ireland since 2019 according to the CSO. Also similar to what BA have got since 2019, Virgin pilots recently turned down 29% and easyJet pilots rumoured to be turning down 22%. The ryanair comparison is not valid and had been explained to you many times why the companies are different. It's a different type of operation, pilots work life balance is different etc so yes it is justified. I also don't believe anyone else thinks Ryanair is a model for anything like good employee relations or remuneration.

A lot of people on here saying the pilots won't have sympathy if they go on strike. That shouldn't and doesn't matter at all. This is a dispute within a private Corporation between its (extremely poor) management team and its (slightly greedy) pilots. I remember when Ryanair pilots went on strike and even here on boards there were a lot of people criticising them for wanting something as simple as union recognition.

Aer Lingus management already proved they aren't taking this seriously enough by not accepting the electronic ballot and customers should take note of that.

Negotiations always have a high claim and a low offer. That's how negotiations start. The pilots won't get 24% but management will face continued strikes unless they offer something much better than 9%.

I do think blanket percentage increases are not the correct way to do it. It should be a lower percentage increase for those on 150/200k plus and a higher percentage increase for those on below 100k. The net financial gain will be more balanced then.

The unions will have to give EI notice and will announce strike dates

So I wouldn't get too wortied about your flight on EI at this stage

If management had any skills in running this airline, they would have sorted this a long time ago. In reality, I think something like a 15% pay rise, back dated to 1 January 2023 with no contingencies on productivity for that. Then agree a further 2.5% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026. Get the job done and move on. Show the people they can run the airline and also their parent company.

This being allowed to happen and going on the airwaves discussing salaries for the same people who fly us across the Atlantic in all sorts of challenging conditions with huge responsibility on their shoulders, who are already being paid the same or in some cases a lot less then their fellow Euro operators.

The whole operation being relied on by people coming in to keep the show on the road when they are not scheduled to and using hire ins throughout the year gives a very bad impression. In what other areas does management want to cut back on?

EI pilots wore the green jersey in Covid, took huge cuts for an extended period of time. The company is raking in the profits and management are sharing the spoils at the expense of those who actually work on the front line of the operation. IALPA are merely using what they are legally entitled to do for their members. EI don't want to negotiate, which shows their poor management skills yet again.

What date is the earliest they could strike, flying at lunchtime Tuesday technically that is less than 7 days, would we be safe? Thanks