Over 40,000 mainline rail passengers will have to find alternative transport today and tomorrow after talks broke down at the Labour Relations Commission last night. Further strikes are planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week and SIPTU rail branch secretary Mr Tony Tobin warned of an all-out strike becoming likely in the following week.
Iarnrod Eireann management offered signallers an extra £1,000 a year each, plus another £500 increase next September, if they would call off the strike. However, union representatives said this would still leave their 138 members up to £3,500 a year worse off under the new analysed hours system than the present arrangements.
All mainline services will be affected by the strike. DART services will operate normally between Bray, Howth and Malahide, but there will be no service to Greystones.
Meanwhile, major disruption of flights to and from Ireland is likely on Friday. Ryanair is to meet its pilots' committee today in an attempt to prevent the 24hour strike. But the company is already offering passengers the option of switching to Thursday and Saturday, or receiving a refund.
Last night Ryanair's chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, said: "This threat of strike action is just the latest evidence of Ryan air pilots being entirely and deliberately misled by IMPACT."
He denied that Ryanair had changed its position, "and will not be changing any pilots' flying hours. Pilot hours haven't been altered since 1997 when the current five-year agreement was put in place, and this will continue to be the case both before and after Friday next".
"It is also a nonsense put about by IMPACT that Ryanair's pilots work 50 or 60 hours a week. They don't. In the current month Ryanair's pilots are rostered for 26 hours duty a week."
IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Mr Michael Landers, said Mr O'Leary's comments were "a rehash of a statement he issued to pilots two weeks ago. I didn't reject the new deal, pilots rejected the deal. If they had such good conditions as Mr O'Leary claims they wouldn't be coming to IMPACT.
"What pilots want isn't more money and more shares, as Mr O'Leary seems to think, but more time to spend with their families, like everybody else."
Mr Landers said Mr O'Leary's claims about pilots flying only 26 hours a week referred to the November roster; one of the quietest of the year. "Look at August and you will see plenty of 60-hour weeks."
There was one positive development on the aviation front yesterday when Aer Lingus clerical staff voted by 755 to 553 to accept the latest Labour Court recommendation. Talks with general operatives and cabin crew continue.