Irish Ferries row a racism time-bomb

Pembroke Dock was a pretty bleak place last weekend. It was a six-hour journey from Dublin on Friday morning, 24 November, through snow and traffic to get there. Wales had almost ground to a halt that morning. A thick blanket of snow covered the whole country and Pembrokeshire was all but cut off for the first part of the day.

On the way to report on what was going on in the Irish Ferries dispute, our flight was held in a holding pattern over Cardiff while snow was cleared from the runway. There was another long wait while a stand was cleared for the aircraft and when we picked up the car there was really very little hope that we would make it the 100 or so miles to Pembroke.

Along the way people told us that the docks had been cut off by the snow. At the end of the motorway, with 30 miles still to go, there was a huge traffic jam. Trucks on the way to Pembroke were being turned back advised by the police that even if they managed to get through, the ferry was going nowhere. We heard that the narrow mountainous road to the port was blocked. A Tesco truck making deliveries had overturned and attempts were being made to clear it. Eventually we got underway again, behind a snow plough, in temperatures close to zero and with more snow threatening.

Along the way, the Irish Ferries dispute was the second item on all the news bulletins; there is huge interest in Wales,and especially Pembrokeshire, about how things will pan out. The company is the biggest customer for the port and any threat to the future of its services is a threat to the whole area.

After all the effort, arriving in Pembroke was a disappointment. Last weekend the only sign that a ferry service actually operated out of the port was an electronic sign saying that the next Irish Ferry sailing would be on Monday 28 November. The ferry terminal was barred and locked and there was not a soul in sight. In fact it was eerily deserted. Occasionally a truck would arrive, deposit its trailer in a freight yard and leave. Snow and sleet made it an unwelcoming place and Irish Ferries were not going to allow any journalists near their ship to talk to the crew. It wasn't even possible to ask anyone if we would be allowed on board.

It was obvious from a day into this dispute that, despite the stand-offs in Wales and the blockading of the Cherburg ferry, this dispute will be decided in Dublin. People in Pembroke are just looking on helplessly wondering if the most important economic contributor to their town actually has a future. But the chances of them actually remaining passive are remote. Already the rail and maritime workers union, with 70,000 members, has promised that they will do all in their power to help SIPTU.

At home the question is whether or not the unions actually have the guts for the bitter fight this dispute looks set to become. After 18 years of partnership deals and industrial peace, there is a belief that the union leadership has lost the will for battle, that stances taken before each round of pay talks were nothing more than posturing, that no matter what, every year there would be a deal.

But the Irish Ferries dispute seems to be the line in the sand for most unions and it will be a test of the leadership's mettle to see if they can stand up effectively to this company. Did the unions gain anything from the partnership process other than percentage increases every year. Was there to be any quid pro quo from the employers for years of industrial peace? Or could a single employer just throw all the rules on the scrap heap whenever they chose and the rest of the union membership should just stand aside.

The actions of Irish Ferries in this row are almost unbelievable. Not only have they caused massive damage to themselves and treated their workers like serfs, they will, if they succeed in replacing their staff with cut price workers from Eastern Europe, cause huge social damage in this country. Over the past two years Ireland has absorbed hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former communist countries with few problems. We have taken several times more immigrants per head then France or the Netherlands, and there is very little resentment about it.

With one move Irish Ferries put all of that in peril. If one company gets away with it, people will start to believe that others will follow. Very quickly resentment will grow against those who come here to make a life for themselves, where before they were welcomed. It will be a racist timebomb and it is something which is in all our interests to prevent at all costs.

Fergal Keane is a reporter on RTÉ's Five Seven Live