The summer is halfway over but August is yet to be enjoyed and with it, a bank holiday weekend. On days of fine sunny weather there are few better ways of relaxing than indulging in the pleasures of countryside or beach. But even in these times of plenty, not everyone has a car and such expeditions have to be planned. There are many families who would turn to rail as the preferred means of escape on such occasions, or merely for getting home, perhaps from Dublin or Cork. For these people, and for the many visitors who come here in the summer months, the past six weeks have obliged them to cope with the effects of an unnecessary and unjustified strike that seems destined to splutter on with no end in sight.
The union at the centre of the dispute, the union which has taken unofficial industrial action, the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association (ILDA), has something of a siege mentality and has circled its wagons, as it were. Since the start of the strike in June, there has been some seepage of members back to work but as yet insufficient in numbers to cause the strike to crumble. There is more than a hint of a "chip on the shoulder" with regard to the attitude of the ILDA.
Both individual members in interviews with journalists, as well as union spokesmen, evince a belief that the world is against them. And to some extent it is: the travelling public - the innocent victims, the pawns to the whim of illegal industrial action - have nothing to thank the ILDA for. The company is holding fast, clearly in the belief that the union is in the wrong; and the Labour Relations Commission has decided against headlong intervention following legal advice. All of this in the wake of a High Court judgment which refused the ILDA recognition within Iarnrod Eireann on an equal footing with SIPTU and the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union. That is the law of the land and it should be accepted until the Supreme Court rules otherwise.
This state of affairs is not in the long-term interest of the ILDA, its leaders or ordinary members. It is not healthy for a group of workers to be at war with their employers. Neither is it in the long-term interests of ILDA members for there to be a proliferation of unions within the company. Unity is strength, after all, and it is precisely because the ILDA does not represent a majority of the workforce that the rail network has not been shut down completely.
This is an era of partnership, where the subtle arts of compromise and diplomacy win out in the end. As this strike enters its seventh week, efforts must be made - away from the glare of publicity - to find a face-saving mechanism that allows both sides to move forward. In the final analysis, however, the principles which Iarnrod Eireann is defending cannot be sacrificed for a quick-fix solution that will only lead to more troubles in the future.