End impasse - Talks on rail strike

Talks between Irish rail management and unions aimed at averting further strike action resume at midday today.

The strike has already cost the company and the striking workers far more than the measures that provoked it were designed to save.

There is an urgency about the talks as further disruption is scheduled for next Sunday and Monday. However, the difficulties commuters would face should this second stoppage go ahead should not be allowed to influence today’s talks.In the grand scale of things the pay cuts — temporary remember— are not exactly crushing and would have been readily accepted by the tens of thousands of workers who have endured a far greater reduction in income levels.

Like it or not, the level of exchequer support offered to our railway system was terribly unsustainable, even before the economic collapse. The relatively modest recognition of that sought from railway employees — at all levels — should not bring our train system to a halt. Let us hope that these talks resolve the problem and that normal service resumes.