Moves by the Amalgamated Transport & General Workers Union (ATGWU) to call off strike action planned for the railways for next week will come as a considerable relief to commuters, the travelling public and the tourism sector. A formal decision to that effect is expected today. It would be unconscionable if citizens were subjected to a re-run of last year's ten week rail dispute by the 110 former members of the Irish Locomotive Drivers Association (ILDA) who have recently found a home with the ATGWU. But it will not be easy to resolve this messy dispute which has its roots in poor internal trade union relations and rivalries.
Intervention by the National Implementation Body, which operates under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, provided the space for manoeuvre required by the ATGWU. It proposed the Labour Court should intervene; review the procedures used by Iarnrod Eireann in disciplining former ILDA members and invite the parties to an early hearing. The court would recommend on the fairness or otherwise of the procedures used. In tandem with this development, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions would investigate the fraught interunion relations that exist between the ATGWU and the two unions presently representing train drivers - the NBRU and SIPTU.
Relations between management and unions within CIE have been poisoned by decades of government neglect and penny-pinching. The rail system was allowed to fall into decay and was provided with the lowest subvention levels within the EU. Because of low basic pay, workers came to depend on overtime and special payments. This, in turn, led to inflexibility, restrictive practices and demarcations within the company. Problems were compounded by rock-bottom morale, inter-union rivalry and poor management practices.
With the help of EU structural funding, an investment programme has been initiated in recent years. That investment automatically drew demands for better pay and conditions from the unions and gave rise to dissension within the workforce. The creation of ILDA arose from disillusionment amongst train drivers with SIPTU and the NBRU. The new grouping represented the more militant section of train drivers but management at Iarnrod Eireann refused to negotiate with it under pressure from the parent unions. Ten weeks of industrial action and court challenges last year failed to provide ILDA with negotiating rights. Some months ago its members joined the ATGWU in order to renew the struggle.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, warned on Wednesday that the actions of the ATGWU could lead to industrial anarchy and undermine the role of trade unions as social partners. Those sentiments were echoed by the general secretary of the ICTU, Mr Peter Cassells, who described the strike as wrong and contrary to the procedures agreed by all unions affiliated to Congress. Since then, faced by the prospect of the ATGWU being expelled from or voluntarily leaving Congress - with all the consequential damage that would entail for the social partnership model - strenuous efforts have been made to devise a framework within which compromise might be found.
Separating the dispute into two elements was an important first step. Involving the Labour Court in a review of the disciplinary procedures used by Iarnrod Eireann does not, however, mean that Mr Brendan Ogle and his former ILDA members will be automatically vindicated. The internal disputes procedure that Congress has invoked at the urgings of SIPTU and the NBRU, in an attempt to resolve the contentious issue of trade union representation, may not favour the ATGWU.