The Aer Lingus Cabin Crew base at Shannon has been saved, after staff voted in favour of proposals tabled at the Labour Relations Commission.
Concerns had been expressed for the futures of 87 cabin crew workers at Shannon following a dispute over the staffing of new Aer Lingus Transatlantic flights in the new year, but following talks at the LRC, staff have voted by an 82% majority to accept the compromises.
The dispute relates to staffing arrangements for new Aer Lingus transatlantic services that are set to begin in 2014 and will be using a smaller Boeing 757 aircraft.
Management at the airline had previously said it would have to outsource cabin crew on the new routes from Shannon, after IMPACT refused to operate the flights with fewer crew members.
Aer Lingus staff had earlier voted for industrial action and that remains on the table as other issues have not been resolved.
But Niall Shanahan from IMPACT says the LRC deal should mean the imminent threat to Shannon is over.
"Our expectation now is that Aer Lingus won’t out-source these flights because they won’t have to, and I think the threat of closure that was issued by the company should have no reason to continue now at this point, either" he said.
"Hopefully what has transpired over the last week will help secure the future of Shannon as an Aer Lingus base" he added.
