STRIKING ELECTRICIANS have claimed the first day of their industrial action shut many of the biggest construction sites in the country.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said members had successfully picketed 240 sites nationally.
No work took place yesterday on the National Conference Centre in Dublin’s Docklands or the new Lansdowne Road stadium, while work was also “significantly disrupted” at Terminal 2 at Dublin airport, according to the Dublin Airport Authority.
Other major sites targeted included the new Intel development in Leixlip, Co Kildare, the Corrib gas pipeline project in Belmullet, Co Mayo, and Moneypoint power station in Co Clare.
About 70 electricians picketed the Lansdowne Road development which is due to open next April.
TEEU organiser Tom Gibney described the picket as a “great success” on all Dublin-related sites that he had visited. He said the TEEU had the backing of other construction workers who turned up yesterday, but had to leave again. “A lot of the other trades work under agreements and they know that if our agreement is attacked their agreement will be attacked. It is an attack on the construction industry as well as the electrical industry.”
Electrician Stephen Homan said he had been unemployed for seven months recently, but was prepared to strike because the alternative would mean diminished conditions for his son who is an apprentice electrician.
“The only agreement that stands legally is our agreement. The only agreement after that is the minimum wage.”
The gates of the National Conference Centre were shut yesterday. About 60 electricians picketed out of a total workforce on site of about 500.
Pickets were placed on the Corrib gas refinery site in Co Mayo at about 5.30am yesterday.
The TEEU said 200 of its members were involved in the picket. It claimed they had received support from the drivers of many trucks who were refusing to cross the picket line.
However, a spokesman for Shell EP Ireland said he had no information to support the latter claim. He said 50 per cent of its workforce in the terminal area was working yesterday.
About 1,500 workers are employed on the Corrib gas project in Erris as plans proceed to bring the gas ashore. About 1,000 of these are employed on the terminal site. Many of them are electricians.
The terminal is now 80 per cent complete, but the strike by electricians will slow down the final construction phase.
In Cork, some 2,500 members of the TEEU mounted pickets on a number of major construction projects in the city and county, including a number of projects in the Whitegate and Aghada areas of east Cork.
According to TEEU regional secretary for the southwest Pat Guilfoyle, pickets were placed on the Conoco Philips oil refinery at Whitegate where electricians were supported by Siptu members, while pickets were also placed on the new Bord Gáis power plant under construction in Whitegate.
Pickets were also placed by TEEU members on the existing ESB generating station at Aghada and a new ESB power plant under construction nearby, while members of the Building and Allied Trades’ Union supported the industrial action, as did members of Siptu and Unite.
Pickets were also placed on a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer plants at Little Island, Ringaskiddy, and Loughbeg, and its new bio-plant under construction at Ringaskiddy, as well as at Johnson Johnson, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.
