Ms Carolann Duggan, the Waterford factory worker who polled impressively in the SIPTU elections for union president and vice-president, is to contest the post of general secretary. This falls vacant next April on the retirement of Mr Billy Attley.
Ms Duggan has written to various SIPTU branches seeking nominations. Under the union's constitution she requires only one branch nomination to run.
She won one branch nomination when she ran for the union presidency and four when she ran for the vice-presidency.
Ms Duggan confounded pundits when she secured 42 per cent of the vote in the SIPTU presidential election earlier this year.
That vote was halved in the vice-presidential election which followed, although she still won a respectable 21,000 votes.
Her programme, to judge by her circular letter to branches, has not changed substantially from the previous occasions.
She continues her opposition to Partnership 2000, wants a more aggressive campaign to secure a national minimum wage of £5 an hour and wants greater power for rank-and-file activists.
Two other candidates have already declared themselves in the election.
They are south-west regional secretary Mr John McDonnell and Dublin regional secretary Mr Brendan Hayes.
The job of general secretary requires extensive administrative experience, which should give Mr McDonnell and Mr Hayes a significant advantage.