Aer Lingus senior management and SIPTU officials have been engaged in crisis talks to try and avert potential chaos at the airline on Monday.
The company has threatened to suspend staff who refuse to co-operate fully with new work practices, which it is introducing with or without union agreement.
Late last night Aer Lingus management invited SIPTU to talks in a final bid to resolve their differences.
Up to now the company has ruled out participating in any further third-party talks - for example at the Labour Court.
It says it have been talking in every available forum for 14 months, and must now implement its cost cuts.
The airline has stressed that today's negotiations will not be under the auspices of any third party, though both sides will be assisted by Grant Thornton.
They are the forensic accountants who have been calculating the cost implications for both sides of proposed changes.
SIPTU has accused the airline of deliberately provoking a strike. It is balloting for industrial action, and warns of a very long and bitter dispute.
Meanwhile, the Cityjet airline has called for tougher industrial relations rules to prevent what it called 'wildcat action' by air traffic controllers and other critical sectors.
The controllers' 24 hour strike next Thursday could cause serious disruption for up to 90,000 passengers.
The business and employers' body, IBEC, has called on air traffic controllers to withdraw their threat of industrial action, disputing claims that they were either overworked or underpaid.
It said the action would cause massive unnecessary disruption to hundreds of thousands of passengers.
