The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has decided that one of its main affiliates cannot hold onto dissident train drivers involved in a bitter 10-week recognition dispute with Iarnr≤d ╔ireann last May, writes Padraig Yeates. The ICTU executive is expected to write to the 50,000-strong Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union this week instructing it to disaffiliate its Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association branch.
The decision to uphold a SIPTU complaint against the ATGWU was upheld at a meeting of the ICTU executive yesterday.
Irish regional secretary Mr Mick O'Reilly's decision to admit ILDA members to the union, in the face of opposition from SIPTU, is thought to have been a major reason for his suspension by the British parent union, the Transport and General Workers' Union, last June. The hearing into Mr O'Reilly's suspension and that of his colleague, Northern Ireland organiser Mr Eugene McGlone, is due to resume next Wednesday.