Sir, - No one would disagree that a train out of control is a very dangerous thing. However, if your front-page report (The Irish Times, August 4th) that Mr Brendan Ogle, leader of the ILDA, was unaware beforehand that his members intended extending picketing to Dublin Bus garages is correct, then we have another dangerous thing: that of a railway "trade union" running out of control. Perhaps this is his members' desperate reaction to the not very clever industrial action they were led into some seven weeks ago.
This State's industrial relations machine has matured to such an extent that disruption such as we see now is a rarity compared with times gone by. Very complex issues are regularly satisfactorily resolved by the Labour Relations Commission without any of the carry-on presently being witnessed. The main reason is that an agreed set of procedures is followed by all parties in dispute.
From day one the ILDA placed itself outside the control of all the relevant industrial relations procedures available. Given that ostrich mentality by the ILDA leaders it is no wonder that its members are becoming increasingly frustrated. Unfortunately, their frustration is now being vented on the last bit of support they might have - the travelling public - instead of the guilty ones.
It's time Mr Ogle and other ILDA leaders had the honesty to own up to their members that they're on the wrong track and heading into a tunnel that's already bricked up at the far end. - Yours, etc.,
David Reddy, Durham Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4.