The National Executive Council (NEC) of SIPTU meeting in Dublin has voted unanimously to reiterate total and complete support for the union’s members and other workers in their dispute with Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) over savage cuts in their pension entitlements. The NEC also resolved to support any, and all, industrial action necessary and within the law to prosecute the dispute to a successful conclusion, to fight all legal proceedings and to provide full representation for any member or official arising from their actions in furtherance of the trade dispute.It was noted that while the union is confident that it will successfully defend any court action, the pensions of several thousand workers have evaporated despite their having paid for them throughout their working lives and they continue to incur deductions every week from their hard earned pay packets. Even management has conceded that as things stand at present 90 cents in every euro of their contributions are completely worthless to them.The meeting also condemned the delay in establishing the Expert Group which the union, together with the ICTU, had been seeking for several months and despite the fact that it was supported by the Tánaiste and Labour Party ministers and even the head of the employer’s organisation, IBEC.The dispute is now assuming even greater significance in the light of several legal actions initiated against SIPTU which challenge the very democratic right of workers to withdraw their labour in a legitimate trade dispute over pay and conditions of employment which is universally recognised in international law and in treaties and conventions to which this country is a signatory.
SIPTU NEC resolves to continue industrial campaign on airport worker’s pension
