HAULIERS have given shipping companies until 6 p.m. this evening to make them an acceptable offer or they threaten to blockade all the ports in the State.
At a meeting in Dublin last night, which was attended by about 200 people, individual hauliers made this pledge after dismissing a 5 per cent pay rise from the companies as derisory. "It wouldn't buy a packet of fags, it's ajoke," a spokesman said.
Yesterday, in the High Court, the Irish Road Haulage Association gave an undertaking that it would not blockade ports and highways under the terms of an injunction granted to the Competit ion Authority last Friday.
Meanwhile, Mr Frank Clarke SC has been appointed by the hauliers to help negotiate a settlement. Yesterday, he told the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, that he represented haul age operators and others who are defendants in the case taken by the Competition Authority. He asked the judge to accept undertakings in lieu of and in the terms of the interim injunction.
He also asked Mr Justice Cos-tello to adjourn the application made by the Authority for an interlocutory injunction to next Monday.
Mr Clarke said a third defendant, Master Carriers Transport Company Ltd, Pickford Terrace, Upper Sheriff Street, Dublin, against which no injunction was granted, had also agreed to give a similar undertaking.
The interim injunction, which was to remain in place until yesterday, prevents the Irish Road Haulage Association Ltd (IRHA), Dowling Freight Services Ltd, Mr Liam Flanagan, Mr Joseph Barrett and Mr John Nestor, from seeking to secure an agreement on rates by blockading the ports or the areas around the ports.
