THE CIE group of unions has called off tomorrow's strike, but union leaders have warned the company that their members will not be coerced into accepting cost cutting plans. They accused management of creating an unnecessary confrontation.
The danger of a national transport strike began to recede on Monday, after the Labour Court issued a recommendation which called on the company to pay its employees a 2.5 per cent increase due under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW).
The court recommended that the unions agree to meet the company deadline of March 31st to negotiate a £44 million cost cutting viability plan.
There was, a danger of key groups of CIE workers taking unofficial action, even if the unions called off tomorrow's strike. But the speedy acceptance of the court's recommendation by a meeting of the CIE board yesterday appears to have removed that threat.
A spokesman for the National Locomotive Drivers' Association said last night that it would not be going ahead with its threatened unofficial strike tomorrow.
The secretary of the CIE group of unions, Mr Hugh Geraghty, has welcomed the company's decision. He said that CIE had not only agreed to pay the 2.5 per cent increase from January 1st, with full retrospection, but had told him it would do its best to make the payments before Christmas.
For manual workers in CIE, these would be worth about £100 before tax. Clerical staff will receive considerably less.
"The recommendation has given us what we were looking for, so it is no longer necessary to carry out industrial action," Mr Geraghty said.
Mr Tony Tobin of SIPTU, the largest union in CIE, said yesterday that he was very pleased with the court recommendation. The confrontation had been "totally unnecessary and due only to bad management".
He added: "On October 15th last we offered to go into viability talks, provided the company paid the PCW increases with no strings attached". The unions would endeavour to negotiate the viability plan by the March deadline.
The National Bus and Rail Workers' Union, which is outside the CIE group, agreed to defer industrial action last Monday. Its general secretary, Mr Peter Bunting, said that he hoped CIE management "has now learnt the valuable lesson that workers will not be intimidated or coerced into accepting breaches of agreements".
The company issued a statement yesterday confirming it was accepting the Labour Court recommendation and would pay outstanding PCW increases "as soon as possible".