When the general secretary of the National Bus and Rail workers Union, Mr Peter Bunting, warned the media yesterday morning that his members might engage in wildcat industrial action he little expected to be upstaged by SIPTU.
While train-drivers in Iarnrod Eireann and bus-drivers in Bus Eireann were furiously signalling their intention to take sympathetic action on behalf of their embattled brethren in Dublin Bus today, 800 workers on the permanent way mounted pickets in pursuit of their 30 per cent pay claim.
As one senior manager put it, these are "the moles of CIE, rarely seen and never heard". They check the "integrity of the infrastructure" of our railways, ensuring gaps in the fences are mended, flagging down trains as they approach work crews on the line and checking at least twice a week that every foot of track is in good repair.
Their last productivity increase was in 1978. Since 1996 they have been negotiating on a "change process" within the company. On March 13th the Labour Court recommended they receive 20 per cent in two phases over the next year. If it has taken a long time to secure a large wage rise, it should still have gone a long way towards meeting their aspirations.
Instead, it has only fuelled aspirations for higher increases. Shop stewards opted for unofficial pickets that disrupted the DART service in Dublin and mainline services throughout the State yesterday, without even putting the offer out to ballot.
The permanent way staff are low paid. They have a basic wage of £210 to £227 a week, poor even by Dublin Bus standards. Only by working extensive overtime can they boost average earnings to between £15,000 and £20,000.
The rail dispute is completely separate from that at Bus Eireann. But the decision of bus-drivers to go for a 20 per cent wage claim "with no strings attached", in defiance of national agreements, has certainly boosted the confidence of the permanent way activists in direct action.
As in the NBRU, which has a small number of permanent way members, it is very much the shop stewards in SIPTU who are driving the dispute. This poses problems not alone for the management but for the unions as well.
The NBRU leadership is having to run very fast to stay ahead of its own militants. A new factor in this volatile mix is the fact that the vast majority of NBRU members have never been on strike before. They are too young to remember the grim disputes of the 1980s, let alone the 1970s.
The cost to workers of this strike has yet to be felt. They work a week in lieu and most drivers lost only one day's pay last week. They will also receive the last £15 payment that was provided each week during the talks at the Labour Relations Commission.
Today, NBRU militants in Bus Eireann and Iarnrod Eireann are expected to organise action in support of Dublin Bus workers. There were train drivers' representatives at yesterday's mass meeting. The question is not whether they can disrupt trains today, but whether the official union leadership can ensure a return to normal working tomorrow or Friday, when the current strike at Dublin Bus ends, albeit temporarily.
For SIPTU, the issues are even more complex. Unlike the NBRU, it is an affiliate of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. It not only endorsed the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness but strongly championed it.
SIPTU president Mr Des Geraghty was quick to respond to Mr Bunting's charges that he was seeking to "demonise" the NBRU in the media. He expressed surprise that Mr Bunting was reacting to unattributed media comments instead of raising issues with him. Mr Geraghty says he is willing to meet the NBRU at any time to discuss ways of achieving their common objective of a pay increase for members.
The difference was one of "strategy and tactics", not aims. That difference could, however, spell the difference between life and death for the new national agreement SIPTU has worked so hard to deliver.