High Court grants injunction preventing airports strike Wednesday, March 12, 2014 - 03:31 PM The High Court has granted an injunction preventing industrial action at Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports ahead of St Patricks Day. The Dublin Airport Authority and Ryanair argued that Siptus planned four-hour work stoppage this Friday as part of a pensions row would cost them millions of euro and cause disruption to thousands of passengers. The proposed industrial action was over cuts to pension benefits at Aer Lingus and the DAA. Declan Kearney from Aer Lingus said the airline might still experience disruption. Were a little over 36 hours away from the time of the dispute. We still dont know whether SIPTU intends to go ahead with the dispute in Aer Lingus, he said. Ultimately, customers and Aer Lingus cant wait around…We have rearranged our schedule for the day because ultimately, we cant deal with this level of uncertainty. irishexaminer (A classic case of the State and in this case the judicial arm of the State, acting as the employers friend. SIPTU called a 4-hour stoppage because its members pensions are under threat. The interference with pension rights means that the security in old age of hundreds of people is gonne out of the window. In the balance against that is a 4-hour disruption to the airports and the schedules of the airlines using them. The old age and the current feelings of security of workers is considered of little consequence against the diminution in the profitability of companies on this one occasion. SIPTU could have called this for a longer period but did not. They felt that the only way to bring the managements back to the table was some sort of industrial action, and that is the only real sanction the worker in this and other industries has. The withdrawal of labour and the economic damage this causes is the essential basic weapon of the worker. The High Court has now created a precedent which is very dangerous for the ordinary working people of this country. If an employer can call on the law to force workers to work then workers are forced back onto industrial sabotage, occupations and demonstrations and pickets disrupting the employers business in a more spectacular and possibly damaging and violent manner. This is one more step to the corporate State typical of extreme rightwing or fascist regimes. The powers already taken to themselves by the FG-Lab gang in power, to take property tax and almost certainly other fees and charges direct from the bank accounts, the wage packets or the benefit payments of citizens, coupled with the power to vary the public sector wage levels by legislation, give this administration the kind of powers not normally found except at times of military emergency. Ed)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 10:35:34 +0000
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