Fair pay and health and safety issues are among the matters being targeted by the new midlands construction branch of SIPTU, which opened in Tullamore last week.
The union already has about 250 members in the construction industry in the midlands and to recruit 1,000 or more in the next three to five years, according to branch secretary Mr Adrian Kane.
"Essentially, we have not organised with any clear strategy outside Dublin, Cork and Limerick before now. Last year, we set up a branch in the southeast and this initiative represents a concerted effort by the union to organise the construction sector."
Mr Kane has been visiting sites throughout the midland counties with a view to signing up new members.
"We have a package to sell. The deal between the Construction Industry Federation and ICTU last October has led to dramatic increases in the rate of pay for construction workers and also to dramatic improvements in sick pay." The branch is primarily targeting general workers, since other unions organise the crafts represented on sites. Health and safety has been a high-profile issue for the sector in recent years and SIPTU is pushing for the necessary improvements here too.
The booming industry has often not devoted enough time to training for workers, according to the union. "In my experience, it is the larger companies that pay more attention to health and safety issues," says Mr Kane.
"I want to get the message across to employers that they have nothing to fear from us if they are paying the proper rates. It's only rogue employers that have anything to worry about."
By and large, he has not had a hostile reaction from employers on his visits to sites, despite reports that agencies in Dublin have been employing construction workers, especially from outside the State, without paying the going rate.
He says he has not heard such practices are going on in the midlands.