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IRISH RAIL, SIPTU and the National Bus and Railworkers Union held a day of exploratory talks at the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin today.
It follows an invitation from the Commission to attend exploratory discussions aimed at resolving the long-running dispute over pay at the company.
Those talks have now wrapped up for the weekend, with a further session planned for Monday.
“No progress has been made at this point in time,” SIPTU organiser Paul Cullen told TheJournal.ie this afternoon, stressing that the threat of further strike action remained in place.
Up to 100,000 people are estimated to have been affected by a 48-hour rail strike held last Sunday and Monday.
More stoppages have been scheduled for 7, 8 and 21 September. The All-Ireland Hurling Final is due to take place on the 7th, while the football final will be held on the 21st.
Cuts
The dispute centres on a pay cut which Irish Rail insists is necessary to plug a hole in the company’s finances.
Workers earning below €50,000 are being hit with a reduction of 1.7 per cent, with those above the 50k mark facing a 2.5 per cent decrease.
“Both sides laid out their position. We talked about funding, we talked about pay cuts,” Cullen said in the wake of today’s talks.
He described the atmosphere as “cordial”.
Meanwhile, the NBRU’s general secretary Dermot O’Leary said that as far as his union was concerned the LRC had been “left in no doubt” about the gravity of the situation.
“The nature of these things is that you’re not in the room with the company, you’re in room with the Commission,” O’Leary said.
“We were able to explain all of the issues.”
The LRC will assess each party’s submissions over the rest of the weekend, with further talks planned for Monday.
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Using innocent hostages to demand that they’re removed from a terror list – you couldn’t make it up!
They really are a class act, aren’t they? Plenty of egg on the UN’s face, though! I wonder how they’re going to resolve this.
Al Nusra, the group whose members eat the hearts of their captives and use children to decapitate people.
Also the group that was seen using US Tow missiles in Syria. Hmm…..
And Horgay continues to perpetrate the lie that the west supplied arms to these extremists. A total Russian stooge.
Link? Sorry so much propaganda flying about these days that I’ve lost all interest in trusting most articles,let alone comments.
Johnny, a video of unidentifiable rebels with the tag line of “al nursra…” isn’t proof.
I’ll have some of what Al Nusra are smoking…sounds like good sh!t
Take them off the terror list and put them back on when they release the hostages
The terror list is only being focused on because of the ridiculousness of it. I’m sure the release of Al Qaeda prisoners and financial payments are much higher on their priority list.
Some of the people who comment on here still live with mammy and sit in there bedroom dreaming up conspiracy. Just sad people with no life.they would hide under the bed if any hassle came their way.
..agree, it’s so sad to see such vague, fact less & unsubstantiated statements being made by tin-foil hat brigade here everyday, it really tones down the comment sections & offers nothing!
..I avoid these recognisable commenters (apart from now as I’m agree with this post) & usually just pass over these comments without reading them..
Since when was the U.S supplying weapons to Syrian rebels a conspiracy?
Supplying weapons to the rebels isn’t as it has been known that they’re actively supporting the FSA. Supplying jihadist groups directly, on the other hand, has yet to be proven.
Jason the FSA are fighting hand in hand with AL Nusra, so essentially the West are supplying weapons to groups that fight alongside AL Qaeda in Syria. Is the Wall Street Journal a good enough source for you to back up this claim. What a situation the idiotic Americans are in now, they supply weapons to groups that fight alongside the lads who were responsible for 9/11. Some war on terror I must say!
http://online.wsj.com/articles/rebels-in-syria-capture-border-crossing-by-israel-1409166944
Supplying jihadists or supplying groups that use jihadists as cannon fodder are not the same thing.
Are these the same jihadist cannon fodder that now control the border crossing with Israel and are holding all the UN soldiers. More the like the other way around, the FSA helped Al Nusra take this area from Assad’s forces yet they are now nowhere to be seen. They seem like the ones who are being used by Al Nusra. Your statement is wrong, where are the FSA now so?
Ahh Jason, still spouting that naive opinion on the FSA as secular warriors in a fight for democracy. The truth is the FSA itself contains Jihadist groups, not as extreme as ISIS, but Jihadists lunatics all the same. There is no clear demarcation between Al Nusra and the FSA. Fighters and weapons including supplied by the West cross freely between both sides. The truth is the West got into bed with a bunch of blood-thristy savages far worse then the Assad regime and allied with the same people that brought down the towers in New York.
Scipio, I’m seeing a lot of words and no proof. People like yourself have been making the claim that jihadists are getting weapons from the US for years yet nothing credible has been brought up.
If you look back at my comments on Syria, you will I never made such a claim, but I did say the FSA which is a shambles of an outfit, has either sold US supplied weapons to the likes of ISIS and Al Nusra or being intimidated into handing them over, not to mention there is no clear demarcation between them and the likes of Al Nusra, as their joint operation on the border post clearly highlights.
Is israel on the UN terror list and if not why not ? The thieving that the israeli terrorists are currently doing is getting little cover and no sanctions against the disgusting israeli terrorist regime.
Different rules for different terrorists ???
Are all israelis terrorists and thieves? Seems unfortunate that you’ll label a whole country? Generalisations lead to bad places…
+1 Charles. Very good point. It is only the STATE of Israel that is terrorising and stealing from the Palestinians.
Every Israeli living on occupied land in illegal settlements under international law can most definitely be classed as a thieve, as they are all willingly living on stolen land!
The problem is you’re getting into a legal grey zone when discussing the level of complacency of Israeli settlers and their involvement in the settlements. The Israeli government is certainly illegally building settlements on Palestinian land but if you start labeling Israeli settlers as criminals then you’d be forced to leverage the same accusation against, say, Russians moving to Crimea.
You are some gob-shite. Try and read some real commentary and not the crap you appear to be reading
That would be the same as the terror supporting Sinn Fein party that a monkey like you supports.
The FSA were fighting alongside Al Nusra last week in this area, as reported by every western media outlet. The FSA are also the so called “moderates” that the west back. These are irrefutable facts whether some people like it or not so yes, the weapons the Yanks and others supply are being used in attacks that the extremists participate in.
That doesn’t mean the west is supporting the extremists, just that the FSA is willing to deal with the enemy of their enemy to achieve their results.
Ha, ha we’ll hold a gun to your head until you declare us non-terrorists – what a contradiction in terms – idiots
I think someone on thejournal.ie recently said these jihadis are highly intelligent folk, to which I argued against, this kind of substantiates my claim.
have your say