An intensive series of meetings is expected to take place next week to resolve the inter-union dispute which threatens to close Ferbane power station. There is anxiety on both sides that a comparatively minor issue could have such catastrophic results for west Offaly.
The dispute goes back to the £240 million Cost and Competitiveness Review agreed between the ESB and its group of unions last year. Even then there were signals that a tough line by instrumentation technicians at the plant and nearby installations could scupper a national deal.
Traditionally the technicians were responsible for gauges and other machinery with moving parts in power station control centres. The electricians were responsible for switches. Both are paid roughly the same amount, £20,000 at the top of the scale. The trouble is that control centres in power stations are now computerised, and ESB management maintains that the demarcation is no longer sustainable or desirable. The unions have agreed with the company in principle by signing up for the CCR.
Agreement on new work practices to secure Ferbane's future was reached as far back as March 1997 and was signed by all trade union representatives, including the MSF branch secretary, who is one of the three technicians at the centre of the row.
The vast majority of the 114 workers at Ferbane have voted to implement the changes needed to secure a £16 million renovation programme for the station. Even if it is sanctioned at the ESB board meeting in two weeks' time, it will extend the life of the plant by only 15 years and some 54 jobs will have to be shed over the next 12 months.
MSF has argued that it has until next April, under the terms of the CCR, to reach agreement on the merger of the functions of technicians and electricians. But the company says that a decision on Ferbane is already long overdue and cannot be deferred any longer. Most frustrated of all must be the 200 Bord na Mona workers who are dependent on the survival of Ferbane for their own jobs yet have no say in the current dispute.