Union leaders warn Ryanair over takeover bid
Aer Lingus workers and the travelling public will suffer the most if budget carrier Ryanair succeeds in its audacious takeover bid of the State airline, union leaders warned today.
And they said the Government would have major questions to answer if the move went ahead.
SIPTU president Jack O’Connor accused ministers of failing to heed warnings that privatisation would destroy competition.
He said it proved that the sell-off made no sense.
“Anyone with a titter of wit could have foreseen this development,” he said. “It makes very good business sense for Michael O’Leary and his heavily financed Ryanair.
“If they can pull it off it will enable Ryanair to take out its principal competitor on their main routes, acquire the critically valuable Heathrow ‘slots’, consolidate market dominance and dictate whatever price they like to airports, with obvious long-term adverse consequences for workers and the travelling public alike.”
Siptu, which represents 1,800 Aer Lingus workers, said they want all employment agreements honoured if the takeover goes through.
Ryanair has already acquired a 16% stake in Aer Lingus – which was listed on the stock market last month – and will make an offer for the rest in a move valuing the carrier at €1.48bn.
The Government has said it will retain at least 25.1% of the company in a bid to ward off complete takeover bids.
Ryanair and Aer Lingus operate on about 500 routes, but they compete on only 17 of these.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary insisted competition would be maintained, with the two airlines run as separate companies if he was successful.
And he also said he would have no difficulty in dealing with the notoriously strong Aer Lingus unions, adding that arrangements already in place would remain.
Mr O’Connor said announcement of the threatened takeover vindicated Siptu’s fervent opposition to privatisation of Aer Lingus.
He said: “Are we really expected to believe that a highly resourced state apparatus and the Government itself could not have foreseen this sort of development, which a mere trade union like ourselves warned against long ago.
“Ironically we now have a measure undertaken in the name of competition which, if Ryanair pulls off this takeover, will have precisely the opposite effect.
“Whatever else Michael O’Leary is, he is not a fool. Apart from moving to take out the competition, he is also seeking to close off the possibility of another major airline doing so instead.
“All of this is a consequence of the nonsensical decision to privatise Aer Lingus in the first place.”
