Building workers are expected to resume unofficial pickets at the Capel Developments site on Merrion Road, Dublin, when normal working is due to restart on Wednesday. Two jailed building workers were freed yesterday.
The Building and Allied Trades Union has called on members to resume normal working after the construction industry holiday concludes, but many workers are expected to ignore the instruction.
The workers, who included members of several building unions besides BATU, were in a triumphant mood after Mr Justice Kelly freed two colleagues earlier. The released prisoners were Mr David McMahon, a bricklayer and Mr William Rodgers, a labourer.
The workers, members of the Building Workers Against the Black Economy movement, marched through central Dublin to the BATU headquarters in Blessington Street, where the released men addressed them briefly.
Mr Rodgers described his two nights in Mountjoy as "a relaxation". Mr McMahon said: "I wouldn't like to be in there again but if we have to, we will." Despite their combative stance, both men looked stressed when they re-entered the BATU headquarters.
Meanwhile, there were repeated calls outside for mass pickets on Merrion Road. The BATU general secretary, Mr Paddy O'Shaughnessy, went out onto the steps of the building and called on the crowd to return to normal working on Wednesday.
He said they had achieved what they set out to do and freed the two lads. Now the union needed to negotiate "an overall settlement".
"We've been talking to the employers for two days and we will continue talking to them," he said. "There is still an injunction against the union. This struggle is not just about what happened this week. It's about a permanent struggle to improve conditions in the industry."
The events of the day were marred by an ugly incident at the Operative Plasterers' offices. The union shares premises with BATU, but the two organisations have opposing positions on the issue of subcontracting.
About 4 p.m., shortly before the arrival of Mr McMahon and Mr Rodgers at the building, a group of seven or eight workers burst into the plasterers' offices, seized files and threw them into the road. They were prevented from re-entering the offices by Mr O'Shaughnessy, but ignored his appeals for the return of the files and burned them.
Among the papers destroyed was union correspondence and copies of the Partnership 2000 agreement. The only person present in the plasterers' office at the time was its general secretary, Mr Niall Irwin, who is secretary of the ICTU group of construction unions. On Thursday the chairman of the group, Mr Tommy White, issued a statement critical of the unofficial action being taken at the Capel Developments site.
BATU and the Construction Industry Federation are expected to resume talks over the Merrion Road dispute on Wednesday. But it is unclear what effect a resumption of unofficial pickets might have on the latest peace initiative.