Crane operators who have been engaged in strike action over pay have threatened to escalate their dispute by targeting sites in the UK operated by Irish construction firms.
Their union, Unite, has held 12 days of intermittent strike action in pursuit of a significant pay rise.
The dispute has been further complicated by the fact that traditionally, SIPTU has represented crane operators.
SIPTU won its complaint to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions against Unite for poaching members.
Last week Unite suspended its industrial action to permit talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
However, Unite has now accused the Construction Industry Federation of refusing to attend talks at the WRC today.
It is understood that the WRC was unable to schedule talks today because other construction unions - including SIPTU - were unable to attend at short notice.
Unite official Tom Fitzgerald stressed that the parties to the dispute are Unite and the CIF - and that the non-availability of other unions should not have prevented the talks.
He said that in light of the CIF refusal to engage, today he spoke to an Assistant General Secretary from Unite in the UK, with a view to bringing an "international" dimension to the dispute.
He said that could result in the crane strike spreading to Irish construction companies' sites in the UK - though it is unclear how long it would take for that to happen under UK law.
The CIF said it had been able and willing to attend the WRC.
It said Unite's "antics" over the past few weeks had seen 5,000 construction workers put on protective notice.
It highlighted that the industrial action had cost the industry at least €7 million, with workers losing millions more in wages.
It said that threatening to shut down all sites in Dublin would significantly damage Ireland's reputation as a place to invest at time when they were competing with other countries for Foreign Direct Investment.
They also noted that Ireland was facing a chronic housing shortage and accused Unite of the worst kind of harmful self interest to stall construction activity in an attempt to recruit members from rival unions.
