SIPTU will not block ports to exporters

SIPTU will not prevent the docking of privately chartered freight ships in Cork and Rosslare this weekend as desperate exporters seek to circumvent the dispute at Irish Ferries.

As SIPTU’s clerical staff at the company voted by three-to-one to support industrial action yesterday, union president Jack O’Connor said his members had no wish “to cause any unnecessary disruption to hauliers, exporters, importers, the travelling public or anyone else”.

“Our dispute is with Irish Ferries. It is about job displacement, gross exploitation and establishing minimum standards for workers below which no employer will be allowed to stoop,” he said.