ONE MORE THING: JUST WHEN you thought Aer Lingus had weathered the storm with its unions, the company issues a statement in which it "demands that Ialpa urgently put the arbitration document to a ballot of its members".

It’s almost a month – January 8th – since Kieran Mulvey’s arbitration decision was published and Aer Lingus wants it put to a ballot immediately.

Aer Lingus said Ialpa had “not taken any concrete action to bring the matter to finality. This concern is shared by all other staff groups in Aer Lingus with whom agreement in principle has already been reached”.

This was news to union representatives yesterday.

As far as they are concerned, there’s nothing to ballot yet, as a number of issues relating to the plan are worked through in documents with the company.

Indeed, representatives of Aer Lingus and its union groups were locked in talks at the Labour Relations Commission yesterday on a “gain-sharing mechanism” for staff, as was recommended as part of the arbitration ruling.

Any agreement then has to go to the Aer Lingus board.

Aer Lingus is keen to unlock the savings as quickly as possible. The airline had a high-profile investor day with analysts and fund managers last week, at which it laid out the timetable for the cost savings in great detail as well as its future strategy. The company has also spent the past four days on a roadshow of staff to update them on the company’s plans.

It would be embarrassing for chief executive Christoph Mueller if this timetable were to slip.

This might help explain why Aer Lingus engaged in what one senior union source described as “megaphone diplomacy”.

Mueller is new to Aer Lingus and might have his own ideas on how it should handle its unions, but history shows that they don’t react positively to ultimatums.