As Siptu prepares to re-ballot its members at Dublin Bus for industrial action next week, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has said the Government will stand by the company in the event of strikes by the union’s drivers.

A new cost-cutting plan at Dublin Bus will come into force in just over two weeks, the company has confirmed.

Drivers at Dublin Bus are split over a new cost-cutting plan at the company.

A 58-year-old Dublin man who was jailed for 10 years for possessing cannabis and ecstasy valued at over €200,000 has had his sentence reduced by four years on appeal.

GARDAÍ are investigating the alleged rape of a teenage asylum seeker by a fellow resident of a centre in Mayo, after which she became pregnant.

ASYLUM seekers wishing to complain about their conditions in the direct provision system will be able to avail of a new complaints mechanism from January.

THE Dublin region and immigrants have continued to be worst hit by the deepening jobs crisis, while Taoiseach Brain Cowen’s home area of Offaly showed the largest by county percentage increase of those on the live register last month.

WAS it the first skirmish of the impending class war? Maybe not, but workers’ fury, bosses arrogance and proletarian spittle were all in evidence at the Labour Court yesterday when Construction Industry Federation (CIF) director general Tom Parlon tangled with a gang of placard-wielding builders.

SIPTU leaders at the union’s biennial conference in Cork last night cancelled a crucial vote on whether to enter negotiations on a new social partnership deal, and are now set to make participation in talks conditional on Government guarantees on job displacement and employment rights.

Gama, the Turkish firm at the centre of a scandal over underpayments of overtime, has agreed to pay remaining construction workers compensation, it emerged today.

TURKISH workers at Gama are on the brink of securing an historic payout after two months of ceaseless protests over wage fraud and underpayment.

Turkish workers at Gama construction will be paid €8,000 euro for every year of service over alleged underpayments of overtime, it emerged tonight.

MULTI-NATIONAL construction firm Gama yesterday refused to begin conciliation talks at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) as hundreds of workers continue to protest over allegations of wage fraud and underpayment.

AS the proportion of workers in trade unions continues to fall, unions were told they would have to become more relevant to workers’ needs if they are to be able to represent them in the future.

LAST-DITCH efforts to diffuse hostilities between Transport Minister Seamus Brennan and CIÉ unions begin this morning as talks aimed at avoiding crippling transport strikes get under way.

THE CIE group of unions are expected to give the go-ahead for industrial action today which will cripple rail and bus services within a fortnight.

A COMPLETE shutdown of bus and rail networks within weeks appeared almost certain last night after CIE’s largest union, SIPTU, added its voice to union anger at Transport Minister Seamus Brennan.

SIPTU has criticised the reaction of Transport Minister Seamus Brennan's response to British bus company First Groups plc decision to take over Aircoach last week.

By Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter TRADE unions are failing to respond to workers’ needs as membership remains low when compared to the number of people working, SIPTU said yesterday.

CIÉ bosses were counting the cost of yesterday’s no-fares-day action by unions.

Workers in Bus Eireann, Iarnrod Eireann and Dublin Bus are refusing to collect fares from passengers today as part of their campaign against the Government's plans to break up CIE and privatise 25% of Dublin Bus services.

Unions at CIE are warning tomorrow's "no-fares" protest could be the start of a major industrial confrontation.

CIE UNIONS yesterday agreed a series of strike actions commencing next month as they intensified their battle over Transport Minister Séamus Brennan’s plans to break up the company.

COMMUTERS will be faced with massive rail and bus disruption this summer unless Transport Minister Seamus Brennan scraps his plans to break up CIÉ, union leaders warn.

CIE workers represented by SIPTU have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action.

THERE were renewed fears of a wages free-for-all last night as unions lodged individual pay claims well in excess of the rate of inflation.

ANGRY IFI workers will discuss a possible sit-in at a Co Cork plant today, following news that their redundancy packages will not be increased.

IFI workers will get an average redundancy pay-out of €50,000 but unions say the settlement is totally inadequate.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney says she’s hopeful a liquidator will be able to sell off some of IFI’s plants as going concerns and thus save the jobs of some of the 620 workers who were to be made redundant.

Union leaders say they have been assured of a generous redundancy deal for workers who are to lose their jobs with the closure of the IFI plants.

Joe O'Flynn has been elected as the new general secretary of the SIPTU trade union.

Unions representing workers at Irish Fertiliser Industries are due to meet the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, today to discuss the decision to put the semi-state company into liquidation.

Union leaders have claimed they were misled about Irish Fertiliser Industries' viability plan.

Unions representing the IFI workforce are due to meet in Dublin today to discuss the fallout from the company's collapse.

Kyran Fitzgerald reports on the upcoming pay agreement talks

Union leaders are warning of a return to the tax marches of the 70s and 80s because workers are so angry about State corruption.

Voting gets underway today for the post of general secretary of SIPTU, one of the most powerful positions in the Irish trade union movement.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney will today receive a full report on efforts to save at least some of the 600 jobs at Irish Fertiliser Industries.

Officials from Irish Fertiliser Industries are meeting with Tanaiste Mary Harney at the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment.

The battle for the top job in SIPTU is under way. Political Reporter Mary Dundon talks to Joe O’Flynn, one of the three contenders

THE race for the leadership of the country’s biggest union gets underway next week when more than 240,000 SIPTU members start voting for their new general secretary.

TRANSPORT Minister Seamus Brennan will come under intense pressure to reveal his plans for the country’s three main airports when he visits Shannon tomorrow.