Rail strike analysis: Sometimes strikes unavoidable as parties so far apart

About 100,000 people will be affected today as the country’s rail network again comes to a standstill as a result of a strike by members of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) and Siptu.

The dispute over the unilateral imposition by management at Iarnród Éireann of temporary pay cuts for staff could get worse in the weeks ahead. Three more days of work stoppages are planned in September and the row could escalate even further afterwards.

The Minister for Transport, Paschal Donohoe, has said he will not intervene personally, a stance that some have criticised.

However, the personal involvement of Ministers in trying directly to settle industrial disputes has not been the common practice in Ireland over recent years.

Mr Fixit

Some commentators have pointed to Bertie Ahern’s “Mr Fixit” role in dealing with strikes when he was minister for labour. However, that was nearly 25 years ago.

Over the years the country has developed a very sophisticated industrial relations machinery, which seeks to head off disputes before they start and deal with those that have begun.

Ministers can, and do, encourage and cajole various parties in disputes from behind the scenes. But they tend not to become directly involved in negotiations themselves.

One of the key skills of industrial relations trouble- shooters is to determine when exactly is the right time to intervene in a dispute.

An intervention at too early a stage can be counterproductive. Sometimes there are some disputes where the parties are so far apart that a strike is unavoidable.

On occasions a number of days on the picket line for workers – and for management a period of losing revenue or business – can let off steam and allow talks to resume in a different atmosphere.

In the last year or so, staff in Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus – both part of the broader CIÉ group – went on strike for a few days over loss of earnings under similar cost -saving plans to those being implemented by Iarnród Éireann.

Ultimately management and unions went back to the table and deals were worked out.

Staff in Bus Éireann are now nearing the end of the cost-saving programme in the company and are looking forward to pay restoration after Christmas.

Appropriate time

The Minster said the State’s industrial relations machinery was monitoring the situation and would engage at the appropriate time.

The likelihood is that at some stage over the next week or so there will be a further intervention aimed at resolving the dispute.

However, the unions seem to want something more than a process focusing solely on the company’s current cost-saving proposals.

The unions contend that the major reduction in the State’s subsidy to the train operator – down more than €72 million in recent years – has made a significant contribution to the precarious nature of its financial fortunes.

Comments earlier this year by former minister for transport Leo Varadkar that the rail service was the least efficient of the public transport systems and that the State could not keep pumping money into it, unnerved some of the workers.

Mr Donohoe said last Friday he would not be seeking any further reduction in the State subvention in 2015.

However, the likelihood is that any overall settlement to the current dispute will have to involve the Government setting out its plans both for the future structure and funding of the rail network as the economy improves.