Building and Allied Trade Union (BATU) pickets Ballymun Civic Offices

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Wednesday July 04, 2007 14:31 by mick b

Unemployed building workers picket wins Support from Ballymun community

Over seventy unemployed BATU members picketed the Ballymun Civc Offices from eight o’clock this morning to protest against Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) for failing to comply with Registered Employment Agreements (REA) on Ballymun building sites.
The union leafleted people going into BRL's plush new Main Street offices outlining their grievances at “unacceptable practices by BRL in awarding development contracts” . The leaflet explained that bricklaying carried out on BRL ‘s behalf by Rogerson Reddan is being sub-contracted to Marphil Construction Ltd ,a contractor not registered with the Construction Workers Pension Scheme as required by legislation. Marphil in turn plans to sub-contract the work out to another non-compliant contractor. The BATU leaflet went on to say that the union has been forced to warn BRL before on the same issue: “GAMA highlighted the need for BRL to be more vigilant on their projects yet despite that and other serious breaches of Irish legislation, BRL continues to award contracts without insisting on full compliance.”

The building workers' action won support from local residents angry at BRL’s refusal to enforce previously agreed local labour quotas on sites and failure to secure promised apprenticeships for local youth . BATU vice president Denis Farrell and a delegation of BATU workers raised Ballymun residents' concerns when they met with BRL Projects and Contracts manager, Eamon Farrelly later in the morning to discuss the union’s main demands :
Direct employment for BATU members
Full union recognition
Full compliance with REA and Procedural Agreements

The union official was not optimistic when he spoke to members after the meeting . “BRL has promised to look into the matters raised and get back to us sometime in the afternoon” he said “ but there is a good chance that we will have to return here sometime early next week.”