Industrial strife - Threat to social partnership
Despite continuing efforts to avoid the potential strike through the Labour Court and Government avenues, this dispute over the company’s failure to pay the full terms of the Sustaining Progress Partnership will lead to disruption.
If it is allowed to fester, and both sides become even more intransigent, it has the potential to cause serious damage in the run-up to Christmas.
With a prospect of a more fundamental affect on the economy, the dispute between SIPTU and Irish Ferries will spill onto the streets tomorrow as the former is lent support from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in its protest tomorrow.
The fight to resist the replacement of Irish workers with cheaper, imported labour, has the backing of 15 of the biggest trade unions in the country, but the real threat is to the social partnership it could lead to.
