The disruption and inconvenience caused to the travelling public and to commercial enterprises by the 49-day dispute at Iarnrod Eireann is costing a great deal of money as well as generating a deep reservoir of anger within society. Commuters and holidaymakers have been put to the greatest inconvenience. Secondary picketing has, on occasions, caused the withdrawal of bus and other rail services. The tourism industry along the West coast has suffered grievously. Business has been disrupted. CIE has lost millions of pounds in revenue. The situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely.
The illegal industrial actions engaged in by members of the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA), in pursuit of their demands for trade union negotiating rights within CIE and in opposition to new arrangements on pay and work practices agreed with SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union, are unacceptable. And yet, members of the ILDA must have been disillusioned with the service they were receiving from their former unions to have taken the drastic step of setting up their own organisation. Internal dissension amongst train drivers and their unions has as much to do with this dispute as poor management and questionable work practices.
There is no doubt that ILDA members expected the early intervention of some third party in the dispute. The history of industrial relations within CIE has been for the relevant minister, through State mediation bodies or by way of some independent mediator, to intervene and avert disruption in public transport. On this occasion, however, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, appears to be as convinced as Iarnrod Eireann that the recognition of ILDA would seriously fragment industrial relations within the company. A High Court judgement that refused ILDA negotiating rights within CIE and a decision by the Labour Relations Commission not to become involved left ILDA seriously exposed.
The situation is bleak for the train drivers in dispute. Already, about one-quarter of ILDA members have returned, reluctantly, to work. The behaviour of the remaining workers has become increasingly militant through the placing of secondary pickets. At this point, the least damaging course of action for Mr Brendan Ogle and ILDA members would be to return to work, pending the Supreme Court ruling in November. Further disruption of transport services, involving hardship for the public and ILDA members alike, will serve no purpose.
The President of ICTU, Ms Inez McCormack, has suggested the appointment of an independent, external, mediation body. But such an initiative is unlikely in the present circumstances. A more accurate reflection of trade union thinking may have been given by the general secretary of Congress, Mr Peter Cassells, yesterday, when he called on ILDA members to accept the democratic decision taken by the majority of train drivers in SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union and to return to work immediately. At the same time, Ms O'Rourke said it was unacceptable that one-third of train drivers were holding the people of Ireland to ransom.
CIE management has written to the train drivers, suggesting they return to work under the terms negotiated with the majority of train drivers, while offering to look at their grievances on an individual basis. Such a formula would involve the immediate working of new rosters, without offering recognition to the ILDA and may be too harsh. While leaving the issue of recognition to the Supreme Court, a more flexible approach might generate a face-saving formula and allow the parties to move forward.