Irish Ferries sailings from Dublin and Rosslare were disrupted last night after SIPTU crew members took industrial action over the dismissal of a shop steward. The strike in Dublin took place after 126 articulated trucks and around 100 cars had been loaded on the Isle of Inishmore.
Around 450 passengers were delayed for several hours by the strike, which is expected to last for 24 hours. Similar disruption occurred in Rosslare but details of the ship's complement of passengers was not available.
The Jonathan Swift had to disembark its passengers from an emergency berth on the south side of the Liffey when it arrived in the port at 10.45 p.m. as the crew refused a company request to move the Isle of Inishmore.
Late last night cars and passengers were being transferred from the Isle of Inishmore to the Jonathan Swift, which was expected to sail.
Ships officers on the Inishmore, who are also members of SIPTU, were asked to sail with freight only, but refused to do so.
Irish Ferries' human resource manager, Mr Brendan McCarthy, accused a "small group of maverick shop stewards" of "not only defying the law and the industrial relations institutions of the State, but defying their own union in defence of an individual who was dismissed for serious misconduct".
He described the action as "a deliberate and premeditated action to inflict maximum damage on our customers. We believe this action is outrageous and shows trade unionism in this country in a very bad light". Earlier SIPTU had written to Irish Ferries stating that it would defer industrial action to allow a Labour Court hearing to take place concerning the dismissal of one of its shop stewards.
The man concerned was alleged to have raped another crew member, also a member of SIPTU. He has denied the allegation and, although a Garda investigation took place, no charges have been preferred against him.
Last night the president of the docks, marine and transport branch of SIPTU, Mr John Finney, denied that the action was unofficial. He said that members had exhausted procedures since the shop steward was dismissed last April. Although SIPTU officials had requested that members defer their action, Mr Finney said that he had legal advice that the strike ballot and notice had been properly served.
The `ratings' section of SIPTU on Irish Ferries had made it clear since Monday that the action would go ahead unless the company provided "full disclosure" of the evidence on which its decision to dismiss the former shop steward was based. This had not been forthcoming.
The ships would be stopped for 24 hours and an "all out strike" would follow next week if the dispute was not resolved. "We don't want a strike but we want to let the company know that we mean business when we tell them something," he said.
Unless the company honoured commitments to provide the evidence against its member before the Labour Court hearing, Mr Finney said that the union "hasn't got the means to defend the man". In the light of the company's attitude, Mr Finney said that the only solution to the dispute that was now acceptable was to reinstate the shop steward, who had given years of service.