The Ballygowan work force, engaged in an unofficial dispute with its employers at Newcastle West, Co Limerick, has unanimously turned down a SIPTU offer of a ballot for an official strike.
As the 50 workers enter their third week of unofficial strike action, the management at Showerings in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, has warned them there is a "clear risk" to the business and their jobs. The threat of legal action overhangs them.
"Existing legislation permits the company to invoke appropriate measures necessary to recoup financial losses from each individual employee engaged in such illegal action," the Showerings managing director, Mr Brendan McGuinness, said.
In a damage limitation exercise, he has written to his employees in Clonmel, outlining the company's position "which is distinctly different from that contained in the circular handed out yesterday at the Showerings entrance".
Currently the workers are happy to go it alone, on the central perception of agreements being broken, and on the status of seven long-term temporary workers. They are also worried about the bottling being put out to contract to Nash's, a neighbouring company in Newcastle West. Ballygowan has three ISO quality standards and the workers are proud of their product and feel responsible for it.
They also claim new production equipment was being introduced without prior agreement. They have turned down a Labour Relations Commission offer of intervention conditional on a return to work. They are angry and their trust in management has eroded since 1993 following what they perceive as a list of reneged agreements after the company was bought out by C&C from its founder, Mr Jeff Read.
Their faith in SIPTU is little better, after what they see as years of inaction on their pay and conditions. Officials are now trying to get them onside. Last Thursday, a ballot for a strike was seen by workers as coming too late. On Monday they will reconsider the option.
But if it is only 50 workers pitted against Showerings, which, in turn, is owned by the C&C group, they are in no doubt their action is hurting the premier mineral water brand.
This week the company admitted it was importing water from Hampshire, England, for its water dispensers. "There is more than adequate stock for the bottle end of the business," a spokesman said.
Not so, say the workers. They say the company has traditionally filled to order, which meant a cycle shift and overtime regime for years. They estimate that for each week of the action, 1.2 million litres of water production is being lost. This, they say, is badly hurting stocks which, if not affecting current demand, need to be built up for increased demand for the summer months.
According to the letter from Mr McGuinness, half of Ballygowan's business, which is believed to have a turnover between £40 million and £50 million, was put "most seriously at risk" because of the inability to supply customer needs. "The domestic market can be equally as vulnerable and it would be foolhardy for all of us to pretend that the current threat to our business is not extremely serious," he states in his letter to employees.
Their continued unofficial action is "deliberately thwarting the company in progressing planned discussions on a proposed capital investment change programme", he adds. He claims an agreement brokered with the Labour Relations Commission last July on starting negotiations on productivity and permanent staffing levels has been honoured. The workers claim it has not.
Mr Ger Kennedy, a SIPTU branch assistant in Limerick, says there is a long-standing aspiration among the workers to achieve parity of pay with their colleagues in Showerings, who receive about £70 more a week in basic pay. They also have service contracts and a subsidised canteen.
The 28 full-time Ballygowan employees receive a basic £220 weekly wage, with the remaining 22 temporary employees on £200 .
"The reason C&C does not want to concede parity is the knock-on effect this might have in the wider group," he says.
The standoff continues next week with no sign of either side relenting. For the workers, their jobs are on the line. For the owners, the carefully built up image of their water having 800 years of purity has been contaminated by the ugly spectacle of industrial unrest.