Despite driving rain and freezing winds, the Ryanair baggagehandlers, trade union supporters and politicians attended a rally at Dublin Airport in support of trade union rights at the airline.
During the rally, it was announced by a SIPTU leader that ballot arrangements had been made for an escalation of industrial action at the airport.
Mr Paul O'Sullivan, SIPTU's senior negotiator at the airport, told the crowd, which organisers claimed was 2,000 strong: "Workers in Dublin Airport have for some weeks now been seeking to extend the fight industrially.
"As part of this process, SIPTU members have served claims on their employers, Servisair, Aer Rianta and Aer Lingus.
"They are seeking changes in their contracts of employment which will allow them not to provide services to companies engaged in an official dispute with a trade union."
He said that if the companies rejected this request, the members in those companies would be balloted for official industrial action, following which they could enter into dispute with the companies concerned. Notice of ballot for industrial action had issued that day in Servisair.
SIPTU workers from branches throughout the country, supporters such as the Foyne Oil Rig Workers, Dublin Corporation Workers, the Union of Retail Bar and Administration Workers, the Automobile General Engineering and Mechanical Operatives' Union, the Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Civil and Public Service Union, MPGWU and Dublin Fire Fighters were there in their hundreds. They also came from the UK and the US and Air France workers sent representatives. Mr Jimmy Somers, president of SIPTU, warned that the dispute could cause unprecedented damage to the whole concept of partnership and could spell the end of it.
Mr Peter Cassells, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said on behalf of the 650,000 members of Congress that the ICTU representatives pledged their support. "Ryanair was pampered with privileges and was given support and grants paid for by the Irish taxpayers," Mr Cassells said. He called on the Government to act immediately. The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn TD, said the Labour Party would work to give statutory rights to trade union recognition.