Ballymun tenants are taking their landlord, Dublin Corporation, to the High Court this morning in another attempt to secure an adequate lift service in the high-rise flats complex.
For almost three months they have had to cope with the worst effects of the national lift strike.
Already the Corporation and its tenants have begun discussions on the establishment of a co-operative to take over servicing the lifts. Both moves are a stark warning to the commercial lift companies - and their striking workers - that nobody is indispensable.
Meanwhile discussions involving ICTU and IBEC are continuing today, in an effort to find a solution. This intractable and bitter dispute has served as a reminder that, despite all the hype over partnership in the workplace, bad habits die hard.
The issues in the strike make the dispute no different from many others dealt with by the Labour Relations Commission and Labour Court every day. But it has been marked by a level of bitterness rare in recent times.
The 180 lift engineers in the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) first presented their claim for £11 an hour last June, a 40 per cent increase on the minimum rate of £7.85. Most lift engineers were on at least £8.50 an hour, but this still represented a 29.5 per cent claim well in excess of Partnership 2000.
With the economy booming and a shortage of skilled operatives, lift engineers were confident enough to short-circuit the normal negotiating process and impose an overtime ban at the end of June. This lasted three months and resulted in some of the larger employers agreeing to pay an extra £1 an hour if the men resumed normal working and talks resumed.
Confidence boosted, the engineers pursued their entire claim, and some employers felt they had erred in conceding the £1 rise so quickly.
The unofficial dispute generated what the Labour Court described as an atmosphere "of mistrust, confusion, and lack of clarity between the parties on the wider issues facing the industry." This immediately became apparent when industrial action was resumed, after the TEEU members rejected an initial Labour Court award in July.
As far as the public was concerned, emergency cover was the key issue. Attempts to agree a level of cover between the two sides was the first casualty. While the employers have given priority to obvious services such as hospitals, some vulnerable groups have been left exposed.
Each side blames the other for situations like Ballymun. The TEEU accuses the employers of refusing to provide adequate resources for an emergency service. One company, it says, offered one van to cover all its locations on the east coast from Northern Ireland to Waterford.
IBEC retaliated by saying union members wanted to hang onto the vans as a condition for providing cover. The upshot was that the employers withdrew insurance on the vehicles, as well as on TEEU strikers offering to repair lifts.
For the people of Ballymun the nightmare continues. The Army's expertise is increasing but the rate of breakdown is rising, due to increased vandalism, and repair work by inexperienced Army personnel. The talk of sabotage shows the depth of suspicion.
Yet the two Labour Court interventions have achieved a high level of consensus on the main issues, including a proposal that a forum be set up where many of them could be resolved.
Travelling time remains a problem. The employers say they have already conceded pay rises and will not give more without union concessions. The TEEU points out that the companies have increased charges to customers on the basis that they would face pay increases "in excess of 20 per cent". But it has also indicated a willingness to make concessions on travelling time. Somewhere in that mesh a solution must be found.