Leaders of the National Loco Drivers Committee say they will go ahead with their day of action on Sunday, unless there are major concessions when they meet the Labour Relations Commission today.
The secretary of the NLDC, Mr Finbar Masterson, said he did not foresee any circumstances in which the situation could change.
The "choo-choo flu", as it has been dubbed, is expected to stop all Inter-City services and seriously disrupt DART services on Sunday, as train drivers refuse to work their rest day. Among the events which will be affected are the Tour de France, the Munster hurling final, the Irish Oaks at the Curragh and the Galway Big Day Out Concert. ????????od Eireann had scheduled extra trains on Sunday to take concert patrons home.
The chairman of the NLDC, Mr Brendan Ogle, said yesterday that the drivers were taking their action because CIE had been "dragging its feet" in talks on the company's viability plans.
The NLDC, an unofficial body to which most of Iarnrod Eireann's 350 train drivers belong, is looking for a basic pay rate of £30,000 in return for flexible working and the phasing out of overtime.
It wrote to CIE on April 19th saying that train services could not be guaranteed after June 28th, if there was no progress in talks. On the afternoon of Friday, June 26th, a schedule for intensive talks was arranged from August 17th to August 21st at the Labour Relations Commission.
However, when the NLDC executive met on Sunday, June 28th, it decided to call on members not to work on Sunday regardless. Mr Ogle, who is also a member of the SIPTU rail council and one of the official union negotiators at the talks planned for August, said yesterday that only a meeting of the NLDC committee could call off Sunday's action.
He said he was puzzled at the LRC facilitator, Mr Kevin Foley, calling today's meeting. "It could be counter-productive, as we have no dispute with Mr Foley. The LRC cannot deliver what needs to be delivered, only management can do that."
Asked if the NLDC committee could not meet before Sunday to consider the LRC intervention, Mr Ogle said, "If we were to convene a meeting, members would want to know what has happened to change the situation since last week. If Mr Foley is not in a position to solve the problem, he would be as well not to get involved."
Mr Masterson, who has been a train driver for 33 years, said that working conditions had deteriorated drastically. There had not been a similar stoppage for 22 years and drivers were not taking it "willy nilly".
Both the assistant general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union, Mr Liam Tobin, and a spokesman for the company disputed the causes for the delays in talks. They said that Mr Ogle and the SIPTU rail council had withdrawn unilaterally from negotiations in June 1997 and again last February, disrupting negotiating schedules. The company said it was unacceptable that an unofficial body like the NLDC could cause major disruption.