SIPTU faces the ultimate decision

ACROSS the wide no-mans-land between the chief executive who earns €338 an hour and the staff he no longer wants, the casualties are about to pile up as the dispute at Irish Ferries gets down and dirty.

With the Government already throwing in the towel, this is a monumental industrial relations scrap of the era-defining variety that looks likely to be won only by brute force.

To date there is no contest in the toughness stakes.