IRELAND: The IMF's affiliate in Ireland, the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU), is aiming to keep the national airline -- Aer Lingus -- viable and in public ownership. At the union's recent National Delegate Conference, an emergency motion was passed calling for urgent financial assistance from the Irish government to ensure the survival of Aer Lingus and opposing any attempts to privatise the airline.
A top union official said that "a choice must be made between the compelling arguments for the maintenance of a national airline in an island country, and the ruthless demands of the global market place where the pre-occupation with the bottom line disregards economic development, social and regional requirements and dismisses the interests of the workers who built it."