Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Government is a large shareholder in Aer Lingus. The combined shares held by Aer Lingus staff and the Government account for a majority shareholding in the company. As such, the Government is not an idle bystander in the current dispute. In stating that it would be useful for the parties involved to use the industrial relations machinery of the State, the Minister did not pass comment on the consistent refusal of management to do so.

I will put to the Minister two issues that have been put to me by workers. The first is from a cabin crew member, Una, a woman with 16 years' service who addresses the Minister's point about the dispute. She states that she is proud to be standing up for what she knows is right and that she needs her job and therefore needs conditions to be sustainable. She states the company makes staff feel like it does not want them but this, she adds, is hard to explain in an email. She also states that staff are nervous about the action and do not want to ruin people's holidays. It is heartbreaking for everybody, she adds, but having been told to stand up to bullies, that is what staff must do. The Government is not on the sidelines in this dispute, which is difficult for the workers involved.

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