SIPTU is expected to challenge plans by Tara Mines to introduce more foreign miners to its Navan facility in an attempt to boost production levels.
The union's regional secretary for the midlands condemned the use of these miners as "provocative" last night and also condemned the fact that the company had chosen to tell the media of its plans before the miners' representatives.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, whose constituency includes the mine, last night offered to mediate.
"If the plant closes, the loss of the mine will have a severe impact on the county and surrounding counties. I am therefore making myself available to both sides in this dispute," he said in a statement.
The managing director of the Finnish-owned mine, Mr Charles Brown, said that the rejection of the latest proposals to restore productivity levels by 80 per cent of miners had left the management team at "the end of our tether". He said that Outokompu had exhausted every avenue in an effort to resolve differences. "Outokompu has said all along we must sort out the problems of our production being down at 60 per cent of capacity and they've run out of patience," he said.
Following the refusal of almost 300 underground operatives to switch to a four-day, 10 1/2-hour shift pattern in a secret ballot concluded yesterday, he said that the company would increase the number of short-term contract miners.
While none of the existing contract miners has work permits, Mr Brown said that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Justice had been notified of their presence.
SIPTU regional secretary Mr Jack O'Connor expressed anger last night that the company had not notified the union of its decision to recruit extra contract miners when a union delegation met senior executives to give them the results of the secret ballot on new work practices. He said if this was true, SIPTU would be raising the issue with the relevant departments.
Altogether, 185 underground workers voted to reject the new proposals and only 42 to accept. Supervisors narrowly accepted the changes by 15 to 13.
Overground SIPTU operatives voted to accept the changes by 27 to 11. If staff in other unions had been balloted, it is almost certain that there would have been a majority for change. However it is the underground employees, miners and ancillary grades, who are most adversely affected by the new proposals.
SIPTU is still committed to resolving the dispute through negotiation, Mr O'Connor said.
He called on the company to return to the deal brokered with the help of the chairman of Meath County council, Mr Brian Fitzgerald, last July to see if it could be "renovated".
He accepted that misunderstandings about the implementation of the July agreement had led to a situation where productivity had fallen and absenteeism had risen.