SIPTU represented workers at Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) are to ballot for industrial action over a pensions dispute. The trade union says the action would include a strike.
SIPTU says the companies are refusing to engage in meaningful talks about a deficit in the pension scheme.
It says after three years of an industrial relations process, the pensions crisis has worsened at a time when financial market conditions are improving.
It follows a meeting yesterday evening in which it was unanimously decided to conduct the immediate ballots for industrial action.
The SIPTU members say they have also decided to ballot to withhold both employer and employee contributions to the scheme, and have called on the three current Trustees to resign with immediate effect.
SIPTU Organiser Dermot O'Loughlin said "The membership has said that it can neither afford, nor tolerate, hard earned money going into a scheme from which they may never see any value in the future".
In addition, they are convinced that their respective employers are dragging their feet in terms of finding real solutions to this emergency" he added.
They say any failure in "intensive meaningful discussions" will lead to very significant "industrial episodes" at Irish airports.
Last November, Aer Lingus cabin crew at Shannon voted to accept proposals to resolve a dispute over staffing new transatlantic services, avoiding industrial action.
