This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/22/aer-lingus-trade-unions-change-stance-ba-owners-takeover
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 1 | Version 2 |
---|---|
Aer Lingus trade unions change stance on BA-owner's takeover | |
(4 months later) | |
A trade union group representing Aer Lingus workers has reversed its position and said it would now back a takeover approach by the owner of British Airways. | |
Aer Lingus’s board recommended the €1.4bn (£1bn) offer from International Airlines Group last month, subject to the Irish state selling its 25% stake, but political and trade union opposition has been significant. | |
The best option, I suspect, is to do business with Willie Walsh and IAG | |
Aer Lingus’s central representative council (CRC) – a group of staff representatives from the company’s trade unions – said that a sale could have a devastating effect on employment, leading to up to 1,200 job cuts. | |
However, it said it had changed its stance after IAG’s Dublin-born chief executive Willie Walsh, who began his career as an Aer Lingus pilot, told a parliamentary committee in Dublin that job cuts would be minimal and be far exceeded by new roles as it expands Aer Lingus’s fleet. | |
“The danger of this going away is that the company could eventually go into a downward spin and who knows going forward what would happen if that was the case,” CRC secretary Myles Worth told RTE. | |
“There doesn’t seem an immediate threat to the company, but if this bid was to fail and the share price goes down, there’s a likelihood that the new CEO would have to put together a very aggressive cost-cutting plan.” | |
Senior government ministers have said they are not yet convinced on the merits of selling Aer Lingus as a government-appointed group prepares a report on its options. Resistance is especially strong among members of the junior coalition partner, the Labour party, ahead of tough elections next year. | |
But one senior member of the party, which has close trade union links, said that the state should sell. | |
“Before we heard from Walsh, my tentative disposition was not to sell,” Pat Rabbitte, a former Labour leader and minister before a reshuffle last year, wrote in the Sunday Business Post newspaper. | |
“I appreciate that IAG may not seem the best option for government colleagues (but) the best option, I suspect, is to do business with Willie Walsh and IAG.” |