Over 10,000 passengers were affected by a 12 hour work stoppage at Cork Airport last night, Wednesday, February 20, resulting in changes to airline schedules before and after the allotted disruption time.

The ongoing air traffic controllers' dispute meant there was no cover for arriving and departing flights at Cork Airport from 8pm yesterday to 8am this morning, Thursday, February 21.

Yesterday's work stoppage followed the issuing of official strike notice by Impact Trade Union after talks at the Labour Relations Commission on interim solutions for the current staff shortages in Air Traffic Control broke down on Tuesday night.

A statement from Impact yesterday, confirmed the impending strike action. "Following the preliminary notice of temporary work stoppages issued last week, a 24 hour work stoppage by Air Traffic Controllers is now scheduled to take place in Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, effective from 00.01hours on Thursday, 28th February. Impact regrets that talks with the IAA have failed to produce agreement on sustainable solutions to the chronic staffing shortages, which has made this action necessary.”

When asked to comment on the scheduled strike, a spokesperson for Cork Airport said, "All we can say is that it’s too early to determine how the upcoming strike will impact on Cork Airport at this stage. We’re currently more focused on the work stoppages tonight and the knock on effect it will have on Cork Airport and the airlines".

ISME, the Independent Business Organisation, slammed the decision by the Impact trade union. According to ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding, "We may as well send out the message that Ireland is closed for business' due to this totally unacceptable, self-serving economic sabotage. It is difficult enough to promote the Country as a first world destination for business and tourism without the Country’s air transport network being brought to a halt, due to this totally unnecessary disruption.

The Irish Aviation Authority said it is hugely disappointed by the planned strike action and claimed it was a blatant breach of the national wage agreement Towards 2016. The industrial action is expected to affect all flights in and out of the country as well as planes flying over the Republic's airspace.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment