Irish ferry dispute intensifies

A dispute between workers and management at Irish Ferries has escalated with employees threatening to turn away a passenger vessel due to arrive on Monday.Two ships remain stranded in Welsh ports as Irish crew members demand the removal of security personnel and foreign workers. A number of officers are said to have barricaded themselves inside the control room of one ferry.

The crisis erupted Thursday when security staff and dozens of agency workers from Latvia and a number of other Eastern European countries boarded one of the ships still stranded in Wales. The row centres on an Irish Ferries decision to go ahead with a controversial policy of outsourcing jobs to workers from eastern Europe. The company has been forced to cancel all bookings on the Irish Sea.

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