Technical and trades workers went on a one-day stoppage in the mid-west yesterday over pay conditions. They were members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union and crafts unions who placed pickets on hospitals throughout the Mid-Western Health Board region, including Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary and the health board headquarters in Catherine Street, Limerick.
All local authority offices, depots and yards were also picketed, and refuse collections in Limerick were halted.
The stoppage affected Limerick Regional Hospital, the Regional Maternity, St Joseph's, St Camillus's, St Ita's, Newcastle West, Ennis General and County Hospitals and St Joseph's, Nenagh General Hospital and the hospital in Thurles.
The workers blamed a breakdown in communications for the strike. A nationwide strike was averted on Sunday night after the intervention of the Labour Relations Commission. But pickets were placed at Waterford Regional Hospital on Monday and the dispute escalated to the mid-west.
A spokesman for the workers, Mr Jim McNamara, said they were not stopping any other unions passing the pickets and were providing a backup emergency service.
Workers passed the pickets at the regional hospital building construction development at Dooradoyle.
The chairman of the regional action committee of the craft group of unions, Mr Philip Dee, stressed that it was not a pay claim, but an entitlement.
"We are entitled to £25.26 per week back-dated to July 1st, 1997. This was awarded to us under the terms of the 1979 Sligo agreement. This is a subsistence allowance only," he said.
He added: "Our action is directed at the union leadership in Dublin who are not pressing our claim and are not taking direction from the membership."