The campaign by the senior Irish official of Britain's second largest union to win reinstatement has suffered a major setback.
The Irish regional secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, Mr Mick O'Reilly, had hoped that the strong showing by the left in last month's general council elections would see a more sympathetic appeals committee appointed to investigate his suspension by T&GWU general secretary Mr Bill Morris.
However, at a meeting of the general council on Wednesday the chairman, Mr George Landers, used his casting vote to re-elect the outgoing appeals committee. The four candidates for the two positions had each received 19 votes.
It is likely that Mr Morris will make a final decision on Mr O'Reilly's case within the next 10 days.
It is now widely expected that Mr O'Reilly will be dismissed. Supporters of Mr O'Reilly had hoped that if opponents of Mr Morris dominated the new appeals committee, the general secretary would have pulled back from tough disciplinary action in case he was overruled.
Mr O'Reilly was suspended, along with the union's Northern Ireland organiser, Mr Eugene McGlone, after a critical report by the union's deputy general secretary, Ms Margaret Prosser.