The ATGWU is expected to call a meeting of its Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association branch this weekend to consider peace proposals to the interunion dispute at Iarnrod Eireann. The union's Irish secretary, Mr Mick O'Reilly, has welcomed the initiative by the National Implementation Body and said he will be urging the ILDA branch to accept.
The move by the NIB, on which the Government, employers and unions are represented, came early yesterday. It proposed dealing with the problem of disciplinary proceedings by the company against seven ILDA members separately from the inter-union row.
The disciplinary issue will go to the Labour Court, while the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will investigate who should represent the dissident train drivers. The proposals have been accepted by SIPTU and Iarnrod Eireann.
The next train strike is due on Monday. It will affect the same routes as yesterday's stoppage in the midlands and north-west. Because more drivers worked than expected and buses were provided on some routes, about 2,000 of the 3,500 passengers normally carried were accommodated.
Meanwhile, a plenary summons has been issued by the High Court to Iarnrod Eireann, it was learnt yesterday. The company had been expected to present a claim for around £500,000 in damages to the ATGWU's parent body the Transport and General Workers' Union in London. The company is also expected to seek up to £150,000 a day, if the strike resumes, for further losses caused by what it alleges is unofficial strike action by train drivers.
The company had considered suing the ILDA during last summer's 10-week strike but decided against doing so because it would have been impossible to recoup its costs and the attempt would have evoked public sympathy for the train drivers. However, the 900,000 strong T&GWU is Britain's second largest union and one of the wealthiest.
In a letter sent to Mr O'Reilly on May 8th the company queried the voting procedures adopted by the union and asked why it did not ballot its craftworkers. The company alleged breach of collective agreements by the ATGWU, which is a member of the Iarnrod Eireann group of unions, by giving only one week's strike notice instead of a month's. It also claimed the strike had been in pursuit of an inter-union dispute rather than over conditions of employment.
For all these reasons Iarnrod Eireann claims the union is not protected by the 1990 Industrial Relations Act.
Yesterday a spokesman for the general secretary of the T&GWU, Mr Bill Morris, said: "As far as the general secretary is concerned this is a dispute over which union these drivers are members of. Until there is some outcome to the process he is not in a position to make any comment."
However, sources said the T&GWU was very concerned about the nature of the dispute, its conduct so far and possible implications. A senior officer of the union attended the regional executive meeting in Dublin yesterday to inform it of London's concerns.