CADBURY IRELAND:CADBURY IRELAND Ltd yesterday secured a temporary High Court injunction preventing picketing outside its plant at Coolock in Dublin by supporters of the electricians strike.
The company sought the injunction after claiming the picket, placed on Monday morning, was having a “catastrophic” effect on production at the plant.
It claims none of its own 33 directly employed electricians are involved in the dispute but production at the plant had been brought to a standstill because its own tradespeople would not pass the pickets, placed by persons not known to Cadbury.
Cadbury says in addition to its directly employed electricians, it also has a small number of sub-contractors but has no written agreement with those.
It claims, as far as it is aware, that none of the employees of these contractors, Cavanagh and Dowling Ltd, Brooklyn Engineering and Geoghegan Electrical Ltd, were on the picket.
Cadbury employs 1,100 people, including 900 at Coolock, and says all employees have been issued with protective notice. Most of those in Coolock would have to be temporarily laid off from yesterday evening if the picket continues, the court was told.
Mr Justice Mary Laffoy granted the temporary injunction, returnable to Friday, against persons unknown and against the electricians union the TEEU. The injunction notice is to be posted on the entrance to the plant.
In seeking the order, Roddy Horan SC, for Cadbury, said a registered agreement covering electricians provided that Cadbury was entitled to one week’s notice of a strike, while a ballot of union members must also first be carried out. Neither of these had been done and this rendered the picketing illegal, Mr Horan l said.
“My client is facing a catastrophe because the plant is effectively at a standstill.”
In an affidavit, Paul Butler, Cadbury human resources manager, said he understood from TEEU officials in the plant that the picket had been organised by the union.
This was not a dispute with Cadbury, but was between the TEEU and various electrical contractor bodies, Mr Butler said. However, without electricians, maintenance problems at the plant could not be resolved. The company’s reputation and future investment plans were being seriously damaged.
