SIPTU is expected to apply to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions today for an all-out picket in the Dublin toll bridge dispute. If it does, employers are likely to invoke the industrial peace clause of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, writes Padraig Yeates.
An all-out picket would mean all 550,000 members of the ICTU's affiliated unions would be obliged to refuse to pass pickets at the East Link and West Link bridges. But even a limited response could further hurt National Toll Roads (NTR) revenue, already down about 16 per cent.
The chief executive of NTR, Mr Jim Barry, said: "Any approval by ICTU of an all-out picket will signal the end of social partnership."