Craftworkers at TEAM Aer Lingus say they want to negotiate a shareholding in the company and to be consulted on any future strategic alliance with outside investors. They say the failure of 59 per cent of the workforce to agree to transfer to FLS Aerospace should make Aer Lingus management "wake up and begin a serious dialogue with its employees".
They also want an urgent meeting with the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and this is expected to take place before the end of the week. They will be looking for her support in negotiating a settlement that will keep TEAM within the Aer Lingus group.
In a statement last night the Aer Lingus Craft Group of Trade Unions refused to accept that the aircraft maintenance subsidiary faced a crisis. It said the outcome of the vote on the £54.6 million buy-out package reflected "the incompetent and dictatorial way" in which Aer Lingus management had handled the process.
TEAM workers had invested heavily in the company through forgone wage increases and more flexible work practices. In return they had been told by the company that they must surrender a range of rights and transfer to an employer about whom they had "the deepest reservations". They had also been subjected to a media barrage "designed to intimidate and threaten them."
They accused the company of refusing to negotiate in a meaningful way. The consultative process had been conducted on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. This was despite TEAM employees having letters of guarantee committing Aer Lingus to retain at least 51 per cent of the aircraft subsidiary.
The group's position remains essentially unchanged from what it was when discussions on buying out the letters of guarantee and selling TEAM to FLS began last year. It says that TEAM has a potentially bright future and accused "those who talk down the company" of trying to generate a false crisis. The craft group said all sides must now sit down without any hidden agendas, to work out the future.
SIPTU, which represents clerical staff, general operatives and some technical and supervisory personnel, said it was prepared to re-enter discussions on how the situation could be advanced.
The company is expected to offer clarifications on issues such as job security and pension rights, which it feels have been misrepresented by some opponents of the FLS sale within the craft group. One management source said it took three ballots to persuade TEAM workers to accept the letters of guarantee in 1990 and they had never actually voted to accept the Labour Court recommendation that secured a return to work in 1994.
Seen in that context, the 600 who accepted the £54.6 million buy-out of the letters of comfort in the postal vote on Monday represented a significant step forward, the source said.