The IMPACT trade union representing Aer Lingus cabin crew said this morning Thursday's strike could be called off if management was prepared to negotiate change instead of trying to impose it.
The strike is over the company's refusal to pay wage increases worth 7 per cent, most of which was due for payment over a year ago.
The union says the company is seeking unacceptable and disproportionate changes to work practices in exchange for the money.
Ms Chris Carney, an IMPACT official representing the workers, said the parties were close to agreement when management introduced new demands
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"We were close to agreement on the issues that management had tabled when it introduced new demands that would mean cabin crew doing more flights, losing meal breaks and losing money," she said.
Ms Carney also accused Aer Lingus of demonising cabin crew and says cabin crew have been instrumental in the turn-around Aer Lingus has recently experience in its financial affairs.
Among the concessions over the past two yeas, she says, were 600 cabin crew redundancies, the voluntary lay-off of Shannon cabin crew in winter, the loss of annual pay increments worth up to €850 a year, and the deferral of 5.5 per cent pay increase under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
However, Aer Lingus has said that it is optimistic that it can keep flights running as normal on Thursday as extra capacity on some flights would be able to cater for those people scheduled on flights affected by the strike.
Earlier this morning, Mr Seamus Kearney, Chief Operations Officer of Aer Lingus, detailed 26 scheduled for flights on Thursday that the company expected to be hit by the strike.
Mr Kearney insisted, however, that the proposed changes in payscales and productivity would be introduced. The affected flights on Thursday are mainly on transatlantic and European routes.
Over 20,000 people are expected to use Aer Rianta airports on Thursday in the run-up to the bank holiday weekend.