Major construction sites closed

EFFECT OF STRIKE:ELECTRICIANS CLOSED some of the biggest construction sites in the country yesterday as their strike entered a second day.

No work was carried out on Terminal 2 at Dublin airport and all 1,300 workers left for the day.

There was no work carried out either at the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road nor the new Court Services buildings at Infirmary Road in Dublin. The gates of the National Conference Centre in Dublin’s Docklands were also shut. However, there was evidence of some construction work on major sites within Dublin.

Electricians picketing the Grand Canal Theatre in the Docklands claimed that about a dozen steel contractors from abroad went to work because of fears they would lose their jobs.

About 400 workers are working on the site. Electrician John Stafford said no other qualified tradesmen passed the picket. “The building is at a critical stage where the work cannot proceed until we get our services in,” he said.

Work proceeded as normal without electricians at a P Elliott and Company site on Pearse Street, but the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) say they will picket it today.

About 25 foreign workers who turned up to work on the Lansdowne Road redevelopment yesterday morning were told not to pass pickets set up by the TEEU. The workers, mainly Italians, left the site an hour later.

Electrician Gerry Worth said other trades were “100 per cent” behind their action although they were “not impressed” by being involved in a dispute which only affected them indirectly.

“If we don’t succeed, the major contractors will bring in sub- contractors who will work for whatever they are offered. If we lose this, we will lose everything and the other trades will suffer too,” he said.

Work did not proceed on the Point Village in Dublin nor at the new Intel development in Leixlip, Co Kildare.

About 100 electricians picketed the entrance to the Corrib Gas project in Co Mayo yesterday.

No mechanical nor electrical workers passed the picket although about half of the 500 workers employed on the site, including offshore operators and riggers, did turn up for work as normal.

TEEU general secretary designate Eamon Devoy said they will be spreading their pickets to smaller sites and they will not suspend their protests to allow for talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

“This dispute will not be over until we reach agreement,” he said. “We had to concentrate on the big ones first. We’re slowly working through them and there are more sites becoming involved as the days go by.”

He said threats from employers to lay off workers if the dispute is not resolved “does not worry us”.

“There is a variety of stuff going on. It is low level intimidation. You would not expect anything less.”