As craft workers mounted unofficial pickets at hospitals and local authority facilities in several counties yesterday, the Minister for Health said he was concerned about the protests. Mr Cowen called on the picketers to stop their action.
"My concern is with the patients who are very much affected," Mr Cowen told the Irish Nurses Organisation annual conference in Wexford.
He called for "proper procedures and due process" to be observed. Agreement was reached in the Labour Courtlast Sunday to defer industrial action pending a ballot and this should have been respected, he said.
In Tipperary, pickets were placed on St Joseph's Hospital and St Luke's Psychiatric Hospital in Clonmel, but hospital services continued to function at a level close to normal.
Some non-nursing staff passed the pickets and reported for work at St Joseph's, the county medical and maternity hospital, which has almost 120 in-patients.
"Services to patients are being maintained. The disruption is being kept to a minimum," a health board spokesman said. Pickets were also placed on local authority depots in and around Clonmel, and refuse collection and street cleaning services were curtailed.
In the 24-hour industrial action began at 7 a.m. when pickets were placed at University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) and Merlin Park Hospital by non-nursing staff. Some catering employees also refused to pass the picket at UCHG. Mr Mike Shaughnessy, a SIPTU member employed at UCHG, said the feeling among members was that the union was out of touch. He added that emergency services would not be affected by the protest.
Mr Michael Kilcoyne, SIPTU number one branch secretary in Galway, urged craft workers to use the normal procedures. A token picket was placed outside his office.
"It is wildcat picketing that is happening in an unofficial capacity around the county. There is no shape to the pickets. They are fluid, just turning up at different times here and there," he said.
Pickets were also placed on Galway corporation and county council offices, which affected refuse collections in the city. In the council area, deliveries to stores were most affected, according to a spokesman. Two hospitals in , the Mayo General Hospital and the Sacred Heart Hospital in Castlebar, were also hit by the strike. The Western Health Board issued an apology to patients and families, and thanked the staff who had attended work.
Mayo County Secretary, Mr Padraig Hughes, confirmed that refuse services had been affected, particularly in rural areas. Pickets were staged on a haphazard basis outside council offices at Aras an Chontae in Castlebar, at the machinery yards and outside UDC offices in Castlebar and Ballina.
Mr Hughes added that he did not anticipate any major problems to arise from the one-day strike action and apologised to members of the public inconvenienced by it.
The "wildcat" strikes by craft workers also hit services in counties Meath, Cavan and Louth.
There were unofficial pickets outside hospitals in Dundalk, Navan and Cavan. The action involving porters, painters, plumbers, fitters, electricians, carpenters and other craft workers, began at 8.30 a.m. and except for Our Lady's Hospital in Navan, finished around 4.30 p.m.
In Navan the protesters ceased at lunchtime, while their colleagues continued outside the Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, and Cavan General Hospital. Pickets were also placed on the offices of Louth County Council and outside Dundalk UDC.