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Island ferry crew on one-day strike over proposed pay cuts
By Eoin EnglishThursday, June 04, 2009PICKETS will be placed today on a state-subsidised ferry that serves the country’smost southerly inhabited island.SIPTU will mount the day-long strike at Baltimore in west Cork in protest at pay cutsaffecting the four crew of the Naomh Ciarán II, which plies the route between themainland and Cape Clear, 13 kilometres off the south-west coast.SIPTU, which represents the vessel’s four crew, said the strike is over pay cutsranging from 22% for deckhands to 27% for the ship’s master.The company also expects the employees to work four extra weeks between May andSeptember, for no pay, SIPTU claims.The ferry is owned and operated by Ciarán O’Driscoll, who won the five-year  €1,239,438 state tender in 2007 to operate the year-round service from March 2007 to2012.He has blamed the pay cuts on financial pressures, caused in part by a rival ferryoperating on the same route.On Monday, he said he was forced to temporarily lay off the vessel’s skipper for amonth.But SIPTU accused Mr O’Driscoll of escalating the situation last night by laying off the skipper.SIPTU branch organiser Eddie Mullins said: "The action by the company is bothmalicious and indicative of its overall approach to the dispute. We remain availablefor talks but have no option at this stage but to press ahead with our action."Mr O’Driscoll, who criticised the rival service earlier this week, vowed to operate theferry himself today, alongside his wife Máire and son Aidan, whom he said are fullylicensed to do so.The island’s co-op, Comharchumann Chléire Teoranta, has said that it neither operates independently nor funds the operation of the rival ferry.The company that operates that service, and was accused by Mr O’Driscoll of "cherry-picking summer routes", issued a statement yesterday .
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