Union unity in doubt over strike that never was

Industry and Employment Correspondent, Chris Dooley, reports on rifts in the transport sector

Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary was celebrating at Cheltenham this week after his horse, War of Attrition, won him "a bloody fortune" by coming home second in the first race of the festival at 33/1.

Even that success, however, was hardly the highlight of Mr O'Leary's week. That was more likely to have been the sight of SIPTU tearing itself apart following the decision to cancel its threatened transport strikes.

The union's aviation branch president, Mr Barry Nevin, went so far as to say that its leading officers had "done more damage to the union than O'Leary and Brennan could have done in a lifetime".

He was referring, of course, to the Ryanair chief and to the Minister for Transport, perhaps the trade union movement's two biggest bogeymen.

SIPTU is certainly a divided force after the events of the past few days. Reports of its demise, however, are likely to prove greatly exaggerated.

Already yesterday there were signs that the rift between the union's president, Mr Jack O'Connor, and its CIÉ strike committee was capable of being healed.

It was also clear that Mr O'Connor had succeeded this week in drawing the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, into the centre of the union movement's ongoing row with the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, on the future of both CIÉ and Aer Rianta.

By Wednesday night, Mr Ahern was effectively acting as a mediator between the two, announcing from Washington that he looked forward to working with Mr Brennan and the unions to resolve the issues.

Union leaders have long felt they have a much better chance of doing business with the Taoiseach than his Transport Minister.

Mr Ahern is seen as relatively union-friendly and committed to social partnership, while Mr Brennan - rightly or wrongly - is perceived to take an opposite stance on both counts.

SIPTU's first priority, however, will be to mend the damage to internal relationships caused by this week's events.

On RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme yesterday, Mr O'Connor adopted a conciliatory tone towards committee members he had over-ruled the previous night by calling off the CIÉ strike.

He understood, he said, why union activists who worked "for no pay in very difficult circumstances" would be angry at his decision to cancel the strike.

Yesterday afternoon, an influential member of the committee, Dublin Bus worker-director Mr Bill McCamley, responded in kind.

The union's leaders, such as Mr O'Connor and its new vice-president Mr Brendan Hayes, were "very, very good people", he told The Irish Times.

He had rejected the chance to meet Mr O'Connor yesterday, but only because he believed it was too soon following a bruising meeting between the strike committee and the president on Wednesday night.

Instead, he hoped to meet Mr O'Connor today.

Mending fences with the union's Aer Rianta activists may prove to be an altogether more difficult task.

Its aviation branch is to hold a general meeting on Tuesday and, according to Mr Nevin, members are so angry with the full-time officials that "they don't even want to see them there".

Whether unity can be re-established or not, one thing that's clear is that SIPTU will shortly have to renew its negotiations with the Department of Transport on the futures of both CIÉ and Aer Rianta, along with other unions.

The "lack of meaningful progress" in both sets of talks was cited as the reason for the strikes which had been called for Thursday.

Other unions, particularly the National Bus and Rail Union, could not hide their bewilderment at this stance.

Its view was that the talks on CIÉ, chaired by Mr Kevin Foley of the Labour Relations Commission, were going well and that the Department of Transport was moving away from the plan to take away 25 per cent of Dublin Bus's existing routes and give them to private operators.

That was the most controversial element of the public transport reforms announced in November 2002 by the Minister, Mr Brennan.

Instead of that proposal, a plan has been taking shape which would see Dublin Bus getting a share of the market protected by legislation.

Details about the size of this share and how and when the State company would be allowed to compete for new routes in an expanding market were part of the ongoing discussion.

The two sides had been due to meet again yesterday, but those talks were deferred due to the threatened strike. They are now expected to reconvene next week.

By then, Mr O'Connor and Mr McCamley are likely to have met to see if the two can find common ground on a future approach to the talks.

The SIPTU president claimed yesterday that the only difference between them was that he believed Mr Brennan's plans, if implemented, would be "even worse" than Mr McCamley predicted.

Mr McCamley, however, who has not been participating in the current negotiations, has strong objections to the formula that appears to be emerging.

For example, he says, the agreement taking shape would see Dublin Bus being allocated a certain number of kilometres, to be ring-fenced by legislation, which could leave it saddled with loss-making routes.

Clearly, the union's leadership and its strike committee differ on both tactics and the direction being taken in the current negotiations. But there is also an obvious desire on both sides to re-establish a united front.

Achieving that in the case of its Aer Rianta activists will be a more difficult task.

One senior union source, however, not a representative of SIPTU, expressed no doubt that those negotiations would carry on without difficulty.

Chaired by Mr Tom Pomphrett of the Labour Relations Commission, those talks will resume after unions have been furnished with the financial information underpinning the Government's decision to break up Aer Rianta.

Mr Brennan has promised that they will be given time to have it independently examined before he introduces legislation effecting the break-up.

If consultants employed by the unions find that the information does not support the Government's case - namely that Shannon and Cork airports are viable as standalone entities - they will demand to know how workers' pay, conditions and job security can be guaranteed post break-up.

The crunch is likely to come quickly. Mr Brennan plans to deliver the information in the next fortnight, giving unions about a month to examine it before he introduces the legislation in the Dáil, probably at the end of April.

If he insists in going ahead in the face of union objections, the strike narrowly averted this week could be back on the cards after all.