Emmet Malone

And the most recent ballot was in September of last year when more than 70% of the workers voted against the proposals.

And so the union finds, the two unions, Unite and SIPTU, find themselves in a slightly awkward position where they have recommended a deal which has been rejected.

And now they're looking for a better offer from management.

Management aren't really moving on that.

They have called for new talks, but the position appears to be that what they want to do is look forward at the next round of changes that they want made.

And the union want those historical issues addressed first.

They claim that the level of pay isn't anything close to what it should be.

So there's a bit of a standoff at the moment and no talks in prospect.

Yeah, I think there's definitely a mood in the trade union movement that they have not been taking seriously in some of the issues that they've raised over the last couple of years.

This ambulance dispute has been in the pipeline for a long time, you know, in its current iteration for many months and beyond that for years.

So I don't think that's part of it.

But I think, you know, all of the unions will be looking at what happens here and how, you know, how the unions conduct themselves and what the outcome of any strike action is.

I'm not sure.

I think that at the very least, you know, it's funny, you know, in a lot of these situations, there's last minute talks and, you know, the strike is averted and they go back to the WRC.

And that's, you know, a pattern many people, you know, your listeners will be aware of the kind of, you know, build up to various disputes over the years where that has happened and there's never actually been any strike action.

I think partly because of the bind that the unions are caught in here, having to be seen to be delivering something more for members who have very strongly pushed back on deals they recommended.

I think there was always an expectation that tomorrow would go ahead.

But there's a 48-hour strike planned for next week, a 72-hour strike planned for the week after that.

And unfortunately, given the standoff between the two sides at the moment, there's no particular suggestion that they won't go ahead as well.