Breakaway train drivers return to work after 10 weeks

A 10-week unofficial work stoppage by the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA), the breakaway train drivers' group, ended in late August 2000. The organisation's slim surviving hopes for recognition by Irish Rail depend on a Supreme Court appeal and a forthcoming report by national dispute-resolution bodies.

About 100 members of the breakaway train drivers' group, the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA), returned to work "under protest" on 28 August 2000. This followed a 10-week dispute in which they had refused to work to the terms of a new pay and hours usage deal agreed in 1999 between Irish Rail and the two official trade unions representing the rest of the country's 270 diesel train drivers - the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU) and the National Bus and Railway Union (NBRU) (IE0008154F).

Further limited local unofficial stoppages cannot be ruled out over the coming months, particularly if ILDA drivers are required to work on rest-days, which they say should be voluntary. The other two unions have agreed to work on some rest-days for the next 12 months and Irish Rail regards the ILDA drivers as being bound by this agreement. However, the unofficial grouping is unlikely to be able to stage any national stoppage.

A major court ruling against ILDA's recognition claim is being appealed in the Supreme Court- Ireland's highest court - on 15 November 2000. Furthermore, the two major national dispute-resolution agencies, the Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission (LRC) are to produce a report on the issues in the dispute within three months. If no comfort can be drawn from either of these sources, ILDA members may drift back to the two official trade unions.

The three-month timeframe for the Labour Court/LRC initiative may have been crucial in ending the dispute. Since it would have been difficult for any other initiative to take place during this time, the drivers were facing at least another three months on strike. The company had also announced its intention to reschedule its services so as effectively to write the ILDA drivers out of the timetable, which may have concerned some of the strikers.

The ILDA drivers are now attempting to use an internal Irish Rail "fast-track" grievance procedure - open to drivers who are working "under protest" - to process their concerns over the new pay and change deal. This procedure provides for referral to outside third parties after several weeks. However, the company may not allow the procedure to continue if ILDA officials insist on representing their members as officials of the breakaway union, rather than simply as "colleagues".

The entire dispute can to be seen in the context of an international tradition of train drivers seeing themselves as a group deserving of separate representation. The two official unions representing drivers also represent all other workers in operational grades through Irish Rail.