Aer Lingus and Ireland's largest union reached a tentative labor deal Thursday that removes the threat of an imminent strike from the loss-making airline.The Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, known as SIPTU, had said its members would begin withdrawing from work Monday if the airline proceeded with plans to lay off unionized staff in favor of outsourced, nonunion workers — including new cabin crews recruited in the United States, reports the Associated Press.
The airline is still in negotiations with another union, Impact, which represents pilots and flight attendants. That union opposes management plans to close cabin-crew bases at London's Heathrow Airport and at Shannon Airport, as well as the idea of hiring American-based cabin crew to staff Aer Lingus' trans-Atlantic services.
