Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

In a situation very similar to that at Dublin Bus, we have breaking news this morning that Aer Lingus cabin crew at Dublin Airport have voted by 87% to reject proposals for a 10% wage cut, a four-year pay freeze, lower starting rates, and cuts to sick pay and shift allowances. These austerity measures are proposed by a company where the wages are, in large measure, paid by the State and which is far from idle. A total of 20 Aer Lingus flights left that airport before 8 o'clock this morning. As with Dublin Bus, these proposals were put to the workers under threat of privatisation, this time in the form of outsourcing. I congratulate the workers on their vote. I appeal to the ground staff there who are balloting from now until next Tuesday to follow the cabin crew example. I put it to the Minister that the race to the bottom and to privatisation will not work in Dublin Bus and it will not work in Aer Lingus. Does he feel that it is time the Green Party stopped supporting this privatisation, that it renationalised Aer Lingus, and that it put an end to these austerity policies that seek to put the burden of the Covid crisis onto the backs of working people?

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