The Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association has denied reports that it has affiliated to the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU).
The ILDA executive secretary, Mr Brendan Ogle, said his association was in discussions with the ATGWU and the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, as well as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, about its future but no final decision had been taken.
The association held its a.g.m. last Sunday, and Mr Ogle said it had commended the policy of the executive over the past 12 months, which included the 10-week recognition dispute at Iarnrod Eireann last summer.
While the ILDA has just over 100 members, it retains the ability to cause problems for Iarnrod Eireann and the other unions. In a joint report on the ILDA dispute last year the Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission recommended that the association seek to regularise its position within the trade union movement.
The ICTU has tried to persuade ILDA to renew links with the other train-drivers' unions, SIPTU and the National Bus and Railworkers' Union. Given that ILDA members left both unions because they felt drivers' interests were being neglected, this remains a far less likely scenario than affiliation to the ATGWU or AEEU.
There are several complicating factors. One is that the ATGWU has been in long-term discussions with the NBRU. If it opted to take in ILDA's 112 members, it would probably forfeit the opportunity to recruit the NBRU's 2,000.
The British-based AEEU is currently suspended from the ICTU because of a dispute with the Irish-based Technical Engineering and Electrical Union over recruitment rights for electricians in the State. It is also balloting on a merger with MSF, which would make it Britain's largest union. If it decided to recruit the ILDA members, this would reopen the whole issue of recognition in Iarnrod Eireann.