This morning, some of the worst traffic gridlock ever experienced in our cities is expected as a one-day, unofficial, work-stoppage by train-drivers severely curtails mainline rail, DART and freight services. It seems certain that the 30,000 passengers who regularly use the rail service will suffer great inconvenience. There are fears that the normal commercial life of our cities will grind to a halt.
It will be of little consolation to these hard-pressed travellers that the origins of this dispute, and the level of support for it among train drivers and their unions, is still unclear. Some drivers - the precise number is difficult to quantify since there has been no ballot of union members - are apparently irritated by comments made last week by the chairman of CIE, Mr Brian Joyce, in which he appeared to make a case for less "appeasement" in the company's industrial relations. On the following day, company management proposed new working procedures, as part of an overall rationalisation plan, which would cut into the potential overtime and bonus payments available to drivers. In response, drivers will this morning take sick leave and not report for work. To compound the picture of industrial relations anarchy, a formula for negotiation on the dispute has already been worked out by the Labour Relations Commission facilitator. It is likely to be re-activated after today's one-day stoppage is over.
The irony is that the kind of rationalisation plan now under discussion at CIE is not dissimilar to that already successfully implemented in the ESB, Telecom and other publicly-owned companies. Mr Joyce may have been less than diplomatic in his choice of words but it must be clear to all sides that radical surgery is required. The Government will not countenance the kind of multi-million pound investment that is required in the rail system unless the company sorts out its troubled industrial relations. CIE itself estimates that an annual investment of £80 million over eight years is required to provide a modern and safe transport service. What government in its right mind would make such an investment unless the current relationship between management and unions is dramatically improved? As it is, today's dispute seems curiously out of kilter with the times in which we live, when the Irish economy is enjoying record levels of growth and consumption. This economic success has, in large measure, resulted from a relatively tranquil industrial relations climate built on partnership and mutual respect.
By contrast, CIE workers and management still appear to be operating in a kind of industrial relations environment that is redolent of the bleak industrial relations landscape of the 1970s where management and unions engaged in a constant war of attrition. The bitter exchanges on the public airwaves between Mr Tony Tobin of SIPTU and company representatives are a reminder of darker days. The end result is already certain: the public will be made to suffer and the company will lose more business and more potential political allies, as its already fragile hold on public confidence is further eroded.