In the rail dispute, there are fears now of renewed secondary picketing after Gardaí ended a sit-in by members of the ILDA at CIÉ headquarters in Dublin last night. The 19 protestors were taken to City Centre Garda stations, after CIÉ reversed an earlier decision not to bring the sit-in to an end. Having said emphatically that the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association members occupying the CIÉ boardroom would not be forced to leave, the sit-in was less than five hours old when Gardaí went in with strength. The protest ended in an orderly fashion just before 10.00pm. It remains unclear what impact the confrontation will have on this bitter dispute.
There had been indications that a new campaign of secondary picketing was about to be launched, but ILDA members were stressing last night that the sit-in was a peaceful protest which did not inconvenience the public. However, the threat of disruption to services could now be revived.
In another development, Labour Court and Labour Relations Commission officials, who are beginning an investigation of the ten-week-old dispute, are said to be angry over informal attempts at mediation. It has emerged that behind-the-scenes efforts have been going on in recent days to break the deadlock, despite a parallel official investigation by the Labour Court and the LRC, who had been assured by the parties that theirs was the only initiative.
