SIPTU claims that Ryanair has brought in five new workers from Britain to help with its baggagehandling operations at Dublin airport. The company, however, said no baggage-handlers had been brought in and that anyone working in that area during the strike was a volunteer from management or other departments.
The union also claims that at least 18 scheduled flights did not take off yesterday, but the company continues to maintain that services are operating "as normal". It specifically rejected the SIPTU claim that its winter schedule Dublin-Paris flights had not taken place.
The company declined to say how many flights there were, compared with the normal winter schedule for this time of year.
Yesterday, 150 shop stewards and other part-time officers of the union met at the airport to discuss ways of helping the striking baggage-handlers. At one stage in the two-hour meeting, they asked the full-time officials to leave.
Afterwards, the president of SIPTU's civil aviation branch, Mr Brendan McCarthy, explained that officials had been asked to leave so that members could have a "very full and frank discussion of how Ryanair staff could be supported effectively".
Asked what form such action might take, he replied: "I am not at liberty to say. But there was a very strong feeling that we should put as much pressure as possible on Ryanair to make them live up to the commitments of social partnership."
A sub-committee of the branch, which has over 4,000 members in 21 companies based at the airport, has been set up to explore various options. Members leaving the meeting were particularly angry at reports that Ryanair had brought in people from Britain to help break the strike.
The chairman of the Aer Rianta shop stewards' committee, Mr Sean O'Dwyer, said: "We are very concerned that Ryanair will fly in scabs. That flies in the face of Partnership 2000 and it flies in the face of a worker's constitutional right to freedom of association."
A Lufthansa Airmotive shop steward, Mr John Murphy, said it was "appalling that a big company like Ryanair is denying its workers basic rights".
The civil aviation branch secretary, Ms Carmel Hogan, said later: "We have asked our people to act with restraint for years. They have given it in national agreements and this is the way an employer behaves. This has very important implications for the future of employer-employee relations in this country."
The SIPTU official who recruited and organised the baggage-handlers, Mr Paul O'Sullivan, said that the union was still prepared to negotiate with the company at any time.