The crew of a Romanian ship in Waterford has refused to unload its cargo of animal feed because of a pay dispute with its owner.
The ship arrived in Waterford two weeks ago and is berthed where a Russian vessel, the Firyuza, lay for nearly two months during the summer due to a similar dispute.
The 15-man crew of the Maria G is owed $40,000 in back pay, according to Mr Tony Ayton of SIPTU, which has been asked by the International Transport Federation to represent the men's interests in Ireland.
Mr Ayton said, however, that while SIPTU would honour its international trade union obligations, "this is really an internal Romanian dispute that's been visited upon us".
At the request of the union, senior Romanian embassy officials from Dublin visited the crew at the weekend and will report back to Bucharest on the situation. Negotiations were taking place yesterday between the crew's local union representative and its employer in the ship's home port of Constanta, on the Black Sea.
The dispute is complicated as the ship was recently sold after the company that owned it went into liquidation.
The crew first took action in Lisbon earlier this month, where it was due to unload half of the 6,000 tonnes of animal feed on board. A partial settlement of their pay claim was negotiated there, and the men received $20,000 of the amount then outstanding.
They then sailed for Waterford where the rest of the feed was to be unloaded. The crew is understood to have adequate provisions on board for the time being.
Mr Ayton said he thought matters were likely to come a head in the next day or two. If talks on the pay dispute were unsuccessful, legal action by any one of a number of parties was likely.
The crew members had assured him they did not intend to remain in Ireland, he said.
Mr Ayton was also centrally involved in the negotiations involving the Firyuza, which began in June when the ship's Ukrainian crew refused to sail from Waterford. When the issue was finally resolved in August, six of the men left the vessel and applied for political asylum.
