Strike notice has been served on Ryanair on behalf of ground handling staff at Dublin Airport. SIPTU says its members will stop work for three hours on every shift, beginning today week. The union says the action is necessary because Ryanair will not negotiate with it.
The Ryanair head office was closed yesterday and no company representative could be contacted.
Ryanair is believed never to have negotiated with a trade union, although some of its staff are members of unions.
Up to 50 ground handling staff joined SIPTU a month ago because they said the company had failed to honour a commitment to pay them more than comparable staff at another company, Servisair.
SIPTU says its members voted for industrial action on December 19th, but accommodated a company request for seven days to respond. "The union accepted this in good faith as an indicator that normal relations with the company would likely follow and consequently held off serving notice of industrial action. At the very last possible moment the company did reply, but only to reject any talks with the union as representatives of the workers."
Mr Paul O'Sullivan, a SIPTU negotiator, said that the union had no option but to take industrial action. However, it was still available for "meaningful talks".