Off the Rails

The summer of 2000 in Ireland was dominated by a three-month lock out by Iarmod Eireann, the national train service, of 118 of its drivers, over 40% of the total workforce. The employees involved were all members of the ILDA-the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association-with whom the company was refusing to deal in its implementation of new work practices. This book by Brendan Ogle, a veteran worker of the Irish railway system and an instrumental figure in trying to establish a new union in Ireland, outlines the reasons for IDLA forming and all aspects of the difficulties that followed. The story told is also a personal one, however, when Ogle went from being an anonymous train driver to being front page news. For many, he was a figure responsible for creating chaos, while for others he was simply an honest voice in a changing industrial relations world.