A plumber, a painter, a plasterer and two electricians manned the picket line which was sprung on St Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny early yesterday. Nearby, outside the line, a local SIPTU official engaged in intense debate with about 30 of his members - porters and domestic staff - who were refusing to pass the pickets.
He invoked the principles of democracy, proper procedure and the need for a ballot. "I'm just telling them the law of the land," he said. "I'm not trying to persuade them to go in. It's up to themselves."
His arguments were futile. The hospital workers went home. The picketers stayed and made their feelings plain. "We're really annoyed with our officials in Dublin."
Had they not achieved an offer close to the £25 a week increase they were seeking?
"No," said Mr Patrick O'Keeffe, a health board employee for almost 40 years. "We got £18 and about 12 pages of conditions. We want no strings at all. We're entitled to our analog increase from 1979. It's the unions we're really annoyed with, not the management."
Inside the hospital, the general manager, Mr Richard Dooley, faced the problem of feeding 200 patients in St Luke's and in the Kilcreene orthopaedic unit. Just after 8 a.m., when he would normally have 60 domestic staff and 12 porters, only a handful had reported for work.
The catering officer, Sister Concepta, an Order of Mercy nun, was called in from a day's leave. Administrative staff and nurses joined the cooks, who were not on strike, and the meals were prepared and served.
The hospital coped well, and all routine services were operating, including out-patient clinics, a full theatre list and day clinics. "The essential frontline services are being kept going," said Mr Dooley.
The craft workers, who said they were in dispute "because of our anger and frustration with the way our legitimate claim is being handled", allowed colleagues to bring meals out to the Kilcreene hospital, and two of their members delivered oxygen to St Luke's. "We have stressed to our colleagues that emergency cover should be provided," one said.
But there was a fine distinction between "emergency services" and essential services, such as meals, laundry and cleaning, without which the hospital could not function.
Mr Martin Hynes, of the South Eastern Health Board, was far from happy. "We had this situation in Waterford yesterday and it has now moved to Kilkenny."
The picketers said they were expecting the unofficial action to spread to other towns. However, by lunchtime the news was that the craft workers had already placed pickets on hospitals and local authority installations in three more counties, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
In Kilkenny, the 50 or so craft workers who took action yesterday placed pickets also on the corporation, health board and county council offices, and on St Canice's Psychiatric Hospital.