There are hopes of a breakthrough today in talks to end the dispute that led to the jailing of two building workers in Dublin on Wednesday. But industry and trade union sources felt last night that, if the two men remain in prison over the bank holiday weekend, it could lead to a national building strike.
The men, Mr David McMahon, a bricklayer, and Mr William Rodgers, a labourer, are believed to be the first people to be jailed as a result of unofficial industrial action in breach of the 1990 Industrial Relations Act.
Mr Justice Kelly told a courtroom packed with building workers yesterday afternoon that it was most distasteful for a judge to send somebody to prison when that person was working and wanted to work. However, he said, the refusal of the men to give a commitment to lift their unofficial picket at the Capel Developments site on Merrion Road left him with no option.
More than 200 building workers, mainly bricklayers, left 25 sites around Dublin yesterday to attend a protest outside the Four Courts while the committal hearings took place. Protests also took place in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny and other centres.
The solicitor for the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU), Mr Dan Sullivan, suggested that the men might be released while settlement negotiations continued between the union and the Construction Industry Federation. Mr Rory Brady SC, for Capel Developments and John O'Connor Construction, said his clients wanted to facilitate a resolution of the problem, but they needed commitments that the men would not resume their unofficial picket.
Later the director-general of the Construction Industry Federation, Mr Liam Kelleher, said he was "hopeful that a breakthrough in talks can be achieved tomorrow".
BATU sources confirmed that talks would resume today with the employers. The Democratic Left spokesman on enterprise and employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, called on the companies to suspend their legal proceedings against the two building workers. He said it would be virtually impossible to find a solution to the dispute while the men remained in jail.
Speaking in Canada, the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, said the two men should be freed, and that the party "fully supports the trade union movement in their fight to unionise and improve conditions on building sites".
Several hundred workers protested in Limerick yesterday at the jailing of the two workers. They marched to the offices of the Construction Industry Federation in O'Connell Street, where they mounted a picket. And some 120 bricklayers withdrew their labour in Waterford yesterday. Building sites throughout Waterford and south Kilkenny were deserted yesterday as building workers downed tools and gathered at Connolly Hall, the local union headquarters, to protest against the men's jailing.
There were scuffles outside Mountjoy Prison in Dublin last night as up to 100 construction workers protested at the continued detention of their colleagues in the prison. They remained outside the prison for about an hour, according to gardai. They were moved on from the North Circular Road by gardai at about 8 p.m.
Earlier there had been a sitdown protest on O'Connell Bridge, which disrupted traffic during the evening rush-hour.
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