Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. It is more than a year since I said in the Dáil that what was happening in aviation was an example of what Naomi Klein calls "shock doctrine", that is, the taking advantage of a real crisis to drive through a pre-existing agenda. In this case, the agenda is to outsource operations, drive down workers' wages and conditions and create a leaner workforce in the interests of profit. That is what was happening in aviation back then and, in the past year, that process has deepened and extended itself. The types of tactics that are being used by Aer Lingus, the DAA and Cork Airport amount to outrageous bullying, thuggery and terrorisation of their workforces. Those words were all used by different groups of workers who spoke to me about what they are experiencing. I pay tribute to the workers who have stood up to that bullying and voted overwhelmingly to reject bad deals and, in the case of the workers at the DAA, for industrial action. Shame on the Government and the State for funnelling millions of euro to the companies engaged in horrendous attacks on workers' rights and the bullying of their workers, without any condition whatsoever and no attempt to use any pressure on them to stop them attacking their workers in this way.

Aer Lingus, for example, attempted to drive through an undermining of terms and conditions, new work practices and new, lower pay scales for new entrants. The workers bravely and correctly stood up and voted democratically, by an 82% majority, to say they do not agree with creating a two-tier workforce and an undermining of their terms and conditions. What was the reaction of the company to that democratic vote? It was to send every one of them an incredibly threatening letter telling them that instead of restoring them to the 80% of pay it had previously promised, they would stay on 60%. Let the workers try to pay their mortgages and feed their children on that level of pay. There were to be no pay increases until 2023, lay-offs from early 2022 and a series of other measures designed to intimidate those workers for exercising their democratic right to reject a very bad deal. They should continue to reject it. The State has poured €150 million into Aer Lingus from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, as well as millions in wage subsidies. There should be conditions attached to that funding such that the company may not attack workers' conditions in this way. In reality, Aer Lingus should be brought back into public ownership, with democratic planning to protect workers, protect connectivity and enable a rapid and just transition to a zero-carbon economy, which will mean a change in the nature of the sector, including a reduction in the amount of aviation activity. It is a change for which workers must not pay the price. They should be guaranteed no loss of income or jobs.

I have raised the situation at the DAA multiple times in the Dáil. The so-called new ways of working it has introduced are about outsourcing, changing rotas and undermining basic conditions and demarcation. A gun was put to the head of many groups of workers, who were forced under pressure to accept the company's plan. It has been a complete disaster. Staff tell me that outsourcing is the reason there were massive queues in Dublin Airport a few weeks ago. I have just been sent a video of the toilets in the airport, which are in a disgraceful condition. This is a result, the workers very clearly say, of outsourcing. It has been a disaster. The maintenance workers rejected the proposals in a democratic vote, to which the response of the company was to outsource all their jobs. That is what is happening. Their jobs are being outsourced because they had the temerity to reject a very bad deal. In response, the workers, correctly, voted for industrial action. The latest development is a letter to the union stating that if it proceeds with industrial action, the company will be taking an injunction against it and threatening its assets. The DAA, a semi-State company, needs to stop threatening workers and unions in this way.

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