The former regional secretary of the ATGWU, Mr Mick O'Reilly, is to learn today if his appeal against his dismissal has been successful.
Mr O'Reilly, whose radical views have frequently brought him into conflict with the trade union establishment, was controversially suspended from his post in June 2001 and later sacked. He and another ATGWU official who was suspended at the same time, Mr Eugene McGlone, began an internal appeal after their dismissals were confirmed last April.
The appeal hearings, before three members of the union's executive at its head office in London, concluded six weeks ago. The two men are to learn the outcome at 10.30 a.m. today. A successful appeal against a decision of the T&GWU general secretary would, it is understood, be unprecedented.
Mr O'Reilly has, nevertheless, expressed confidence that he will soon be back in his post.
Even if the appeal fails, he and Mr McGlone hope the changing power structure within the T&GWU, as the union is named in Britain, will work in their favour. Mr Bill Morris, the general secretary who sacked the two, retires this year and the election to find his successor takes place in April and May.
An early favourite in the race is Mr Tony Woodley, a close associate of Mr O'Reilly's, who was elected deputy general secretary of the union last year.
It is considered that a victory for Mr Woodley would boost Mr O'Reilly's and Mr McGlone's campaigns for reinstatement.
A source close to Mr O'Reilly, who is in London to hear the decision at first hand, said yesterday he was also prepared to take legal action if necessary.
Mr O'Reilly was presented with a 250-page document outlining the charges against him, several months after his abrupt suspension while attending a meeting of union officials in Belfast. The charges ranged from his alleged misinterpretation of the rules for union ballots to the manner in which the Irish Locomotive Drivers' Association was recruited en bloc to the ATGWU.
Mr O'Reilly claims the charges were "trivial" and the real reason for his sacking was his anti-establishment views.
