The union representing electricians said today it would apply to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) for an all-out strike of construction workers as the dispute over pay intensified.
The move comes as more than 10,500 electricians staged a strike at building sites around the country, severely disrupting construction activity.
Industry sources said there was "little or no activity" on several major infrastructural projects and in some cases they were substantially closed as other workers refused to pass the picket by electricians.
Brewing giant Guinness tonight secured a court order forcing striking workers away from the St James’s Gate in Dublin.
Chocolate company Cadbury said work at its Coolock factory had also been affected, and the company has put some of its workers there on protective notice.
In a statement Guinness’s parent company Diageo said: “Both brewing and production at St James’s Gate brewery have been immediately and severely affected since the industrial action began.
“Diageo Ireland had no option but to apply to the High Court for an interim injunction against the TEEU and its members to cease picketing St James’s Gate brewery.”
Picketing workers must stay away from the city centre plant for the next two days.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) claimed the national strike had been a “major success” in terms of turnout by members in the electrical contracting sector and the support they have received from other construction workers.
General secretary designate of the TEEU Eamon Devoy said the union would now seek to consolidate its support from other workers through an application for an all-out picket from Ictu.
An estimated 240 locations around the country have been affected as part of a strike over pay increases of around 11 per cent which electricians say they are due for some years. The strike is centred on construction sites and in companies where contractors are being used.
High-profile construction sites affected include the second terminal at Dublin airport, the new stadium at Lansdowne Road and the new development at the Intel plant in Co Kildare. Pickets have also been placed at development works being carried out at a number of hospitals in Dublin such as St James’s, Temple Street and Holles Street.
Some 20 sites in Cork were picketed and about 250 TEEU members working on the Corrib gas pipeline project at Belmullet also joined the strike.
Contractors are likely to serve protective notice on electricians who take part in the dispute.
The TEEU claims the dispute is not about a pay claim but rather about the payment of increases which were due for a number of years. The union wants to see the hourly rate increase from an existing €21.49 to €23.98.
The Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA), which represents around 50 of the largest companies in the sector, has said its members cannot afford to pay the increases. It has sought a 10 per cent pay reduction.
In a statement today, the TEEU said its members had sent a "very clear" signal to the employers by their actions that "they will not be rolling over and meekly accepting cutbacks to bail out developers and speculators".
Mr Devoy said: “The turnout has been far more eloquent than anything I can say and I hope the message has now gotten through to the hawks in the electrical contracting employer associations and their friends in the Construction Industry Federation that our members were not engaged in some elaborate game of bluff over the past 15 months.”
He said his union remained available for serious negotiations and “if employers wish to engage, now that they can see the alternative to procrastination is industrial action, we will be happy to oblige them”.
"If not, the pickets will remain in place and we will now be seeking to consolidate the support we are already receiving from other workers through an application for an all-out picket from Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) today.
Siptu general president Jack O’Connor today called on workers to support the action taken by electricians as the employers’ objective of cutting pay reflected the aim of the wealthy to preserve their assets and privileged positions.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandshow, Mr O'Connor said: "If this pay-cutting agenda, which is being driven by the kindergarten economics of those who until very recently were cheer-leading the credit-led property boom, establishes itself in this country they will do it to workers right across the country."
Yesterday Siptu and Unite backed the strike action. However, director general of the Construction Industry Federation Tom Parlon described it as “economic lunacy”.
Mr O’Connor said that if the TEEU applied for an all-out picket from Ictu it would ballot members with a strong recommendation to support the electricians.
He said: “The TEEU is entirely justified in the action it is proposing and our union believes it is most regrettable that electricians in the TEEU have been forced to engage in such action by reason of the employers refusal to negotiate, despite a recommendation from the Labour Court that they should do so.”
Mr Parlon said that ECA companies were not in a position to pay an 11.3 per cent pay increase to electricians at a time of spiralling job losses in the construction industry. “What planet are these people living on, when they think that this type of industrial bully-boy tactics, in pursuit of an 11.3 per cent pay increase will work?” he asked.
Talks at the LRC involving the union and the contractors’ association broke down on Saturday. Other bodies representing electrical contractors staged a protest on Saturday and said they had been excluded from the process.
Ibec director general Danny McCoy said that as thousands of Irish men and women were taking pay cuts to save their own jobs and the jobs of their fellow citizens, “there can be no justification for industrial action by electricians”.
In a statement, the business lobby group said the strike had a serious impact on many employers not involved in the dispute. “As a result jobs are being put at risk, and customers and the wider public are being adversely affected,” the organisation said.
Ibec claimed some manufacturing would cease and subsequently some workers may face being laid off. The group claimed some firms have already put staff on protective notice.
“The action by electricians is totally unacceptable at a time when the priority must be to keep the maximum number of people in work,” Ibec said.
However, in a statement this evening the TEEU said Ibec's statement today was attempting "to create a climate of fear and divide workers".
Earlier today, the Labour Party's employment spokesman, Willie Penrose, called for the talks between the unions and employers to be re-opened.
“If the dispute is allowed to continue it could lead to lay-offs of other workers, not directly involved in the dispute,” he said. “It is in everyone’s interest that this process begins now, rather than at the end of a prolonged and costly strike.”
Additional reporting PA
