Aer Lingus could face renewed disruption because of "catch-up" pay claims by 2,800 clerical staff and general operatives. The differential between these groups and cabin crew has widened by about £1,250 a year in some cases, and SIPTU has sought an urgent meeting with the Aer Lingus chief executive, Mr Michael Foley.
A spokesman for Aer Lingus said Mr Foley would meet SIPTU representatives next week. A SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Tony Walsh, said that when the clerical and general operative grades settled their pay claims with Aer Lingus an "insurance clause" allowed SIPTU to reopen the disputes if other grades were granted significantly more.
Meanwhile, 150 British Midland ground staff are to be balloted by the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union to extend picketing to Aer Rianta premises at Dublin Airport. The union is using Section 11.2 of the 1990 Industrial Relations Act to do so.
The ATGWU has written to Aer Rianta notifying it of its intention. Under the 1990 Act a union can picket a company it believes is assisting another company to frustrate a legal trade dispute. In this case the ATGWU says Aer Rianta has fast-tracked security clearance and driving permits for British Midland staff flown over from Britain to break the strike.
Yesterday British Midland strikers marched to the Aer Rianta head office and tried to block the service area, including refuelling facilities. None of the company's flights was cancelled. A spokesman for British Midland renewed the company's call for staff to take the compensation package already accepted by 1,500 British staff in return for transferring to Gatwick Haulage International.
The Aer Lingus dispute could prove even more disruptive. A one-day strike by clerical staff grounded the airline at the October bank holiday weekend.
Both groups were awarded increases worth more than 25 per cent in some cases. While these were roughly in line with the current award to 1,650 Aer Lingus cabin crew there are two significant differences.
Besides widening the differential at the top of the pay scales, the cabin crew were allowed to set aside some of the most contentious new work practices while a joint union-management working group examines alternative ways of achieving similar efficiencies.
Mr Walsh said that when cabin crew negotiations were taking place both the company and the Labour Court were left in no doubt that other groups would be back if the settlement for cabin crew was significantly better.
General operatives voted only narrowly to accept their pay deal and head office clerical staff rejected it, but were outvoted by other groups.
Mr Walsh has also written to the chairman of Aer Rianta, Mr Noel Hanlon, asking him to use his good offices to try to resolve the British Midland dispute. He condemned the action of the airline in using strike-breakers. IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Mr Michael Landers, also condemned the practice, saying it would exacerbate industrial relations problems at the airline.