30.06.2017

Crane operators’ strike hits Dublin

Two major construction sites in Dublin, Ireland came to a standstill yesterday because of a crane operators’ strike over pay.

The operators - members of the Unite trade union - placed pickets at the Sisk site in Capital Dock and the Cairn Homes site at Hanover Quay.

Unite said the action was strongly supported with around 20 members on the picket lines with up to 200 other construction workers refusing to cross. The trade union is to meet today to decide on dates and times of further strike days next week.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) - the industry’s representative body - reacted angrily saying the industry and the wider economy were being held to ransom by the action of one construction union representing one category of worker.

The CIF in talks with Unite, argued that the trade union served strike notice during the discussions. Unite regional officer for construction, Tom Fitzgerald said there was a failure by employers to engage meaningfully with the union and a ballot resulted in an overwhelming mandate for industrial action.

The action at Sisk on Capital Docks is said to be the first in a series of rolling strike days. However, Unite is planning to ballot crane operators in all Construction Industry Federation firms for strike action which could mean a nationwide stoppage on construction sites by the middle of next month.

The situation has been hightened by an inter-union dispute between SIPTU - Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union - and Unite over which union represents the crane drivers. SIPTU has lodged a formal complaint against Unite with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which held a hearing into the row earlier this week.

CIF director general Tom Parlon said that within the past six weeks, the CIF had agreed a pay deal with SIPTU giving crane operators two extra hours pay a day for ‘greasing time’ but that Unite is now seeking a further unaffordable claim. Adding that construction companies had been caught in the crossfire of an inter-union dispute.