A letter alleging that baggagehandlers working normally at Ryanair had received telephoned threats of violence was yesterday sent to a union official, Mr Paul O'Sullivan, by Mr Conor McCarthy, Ryanair's director of group operations.
These alleged incidents had been reported to the relevant Garda stations and were part of a "growing campaign of intimidation and bullying, both of our people who are working normally and, worse still, of their families", the letter said.
Mr O'Sullivan denied that any of those involved in the dispute had been engaged in such activity and said the timing of the letter was an attempt to deflect attention from the Dail debate.
Mrs Nora Owen, the Fine Gael TD for Dublin North, said the delegation of Ryanair baggagehandlers to the Dail yesterday was a "very vibrant and graphic indication" that the strike involved more workers than the airline management had claimed.
Regarding the claims of Ryanair's chief executive, Mr Michael O'Leary, that not one Ryanair flight had been cancelled due to the dispute, Mrs Owen said that at least two of her constituents had experienced flight times being changed by the airline.
She said that Fine Gael was unhappy with the notion of trade union membership being mandatory, but stressed that the present voluntary code regarding employees' membership of trade unions was being threatened by the Ryanair dispute.
"The message we want to give to Mr O`Leary and Ryanair is that they are showing up the fragility of the voluntary code and are putting it at risk," said Mrs Owen.