There is a possibility of power cuts for consumers later today because of an unofficial strike at Moneypoint power station. The strike is over the suspension of a SIPTU shop steward.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, considered the situation so serious yesterday that she asked the former ICTU president, Mr Phil Flynn, to intervene. Contacts were continuing between Mr Flynn and the parties late last night.
Moneypoint normally supplies up to 915 megawatts for the national electricity grid, which requires 3,200 megawatts at peak times. While the system has enough generating capacity to manage without Moneypoint in the short term, any spread of unofficial action to other stations would force the ESB to implement cuts.
The strike began on Monday and is supported by the vast majority of workers at the plant. A skeleton staff has kept the station operational, but coal supplies are expected to run out about lunchtime today.
Last night the SIPTU energy secretary, Mr Tony Dunne, warned that the dispute "has the potential to get worse because people's attitudes are hardening. There is an onus on ESB management to defuse the situation in industrial relations terms".
He accused management in the company's PowerGen business unit of confrontational tactics.
An ATGWU official, Mr Denis Rohan, put settlement proposals to the company yesterday afternoon, but said it had not responded.
Mr Rohan proposed that the company redeploy the suspended shop steward elsewhere in the plant while allegations against him were investigated. Instead the company had sent him home on full pay while the investigation takes place. It is entitled to do so under existing agreements.
The suspension occurred because the shop steward closed a workshop where night-time staffing levels had not been agreed during routine maintenance of the plant.