Irish Ferries dispute - Strike action need not be inevitable

The disquieting attempt by Irish Ferries to supplant its workforce with cheap imported staff raises a fundamental issue for Irish labour and also has implications for future social partnerships, and consequently the economy.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor has warned that, if social partnership fails to protect the workers (almost 550 of them), the union would find it pointless to engage in future partnerships.

It is the biggest union in the country and, were it forced to withdraw from national agreements, the consequences would reverberate throughout the economy.

Next week at its biennial conference in Cork, the mood of delegates voting on whether or not to enter negotiations for the next social partnership may very well be negative. They will be mindful of the fact that Jack O’Connor has described the situation as the “most significant crisis” that the social partnership has faced in its 18-year history. The success of such partnerships has been a cornerstone of the economic state of the country which saw Ireland transformed into one of the wealthiest in Europe.

The Government, simply, cannot allow the unravelling of such a powerful format which would be the inevitable conclusion were the union to absent itself from its decisions.

Both SIPTU and the Seaman’s Union of Ireland have, rightly, the support of the powerful International Transport Workers Federation. Already, French and British unions have declared their readiness to support their Irish fellow-workers from next week, and have been openly threatening to blockade ports in France and Britain should the strike go ahead.

Irish Ferries have adopted a totally untenable, unreasonable and unacceptable course and if they are allowed to achieve their objective, there will be nothing to prevent other unscrupulous employers from using it as cost-cutting precedent.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will have to resort to more than accusing it of “sharp practice” and seeking ways of avoiding paying, with the help of the Attorney General, €7 million to Irish Ferries by way of statutory redundancy funds.

The implications are far wider than that.

Nearly 550 Irish workers are being jettisoned and the Government would appear to be helpless to prevent it, although it has already questioned the legality of the company’s strategy.

The National Implementation Body, which monitors the implementation of national partnership deals, has handed the dispute over to the Labour Court.

If it also fails to resolve the dispute, then the Government will have to adopt a far tougher and pragmatic position. IBEC, the employers’ body which is representing Irish Ferries at these talks, has a moral obligation to convince the company to withdraw its ultimatum and engage reasonably with the unions to end this stand-off which it has contrived.

Despite its disingenuous plea that it had no alternative to implementing the cost-cutting measures to continue operations into the future, Irish Ferries is a profitable company. It has reported solid profits for some years and while passenger levels have dropped off, freight business has more than compensated.

Time is running out. The company has put a deadline of this coming Sunday for workers to respond to their terms. Notice of strike action by SIPTU expires on Tuesday. The clash need not be inevitable.