TEEU calls on AECI to join new peace process and help face down irresponsible breakaway groups within the industry. July 10th, 2009. The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union has welcomed the suggestion of the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan that an investigation be carried out into the electrical contracting industry. The TEEU General Secretary Owen Wills said today, "Such an investigation is, I believe, very desirable in the public interest and would be an important step in restoring stability and industrial peace to the industry. "This would be in the long term interests of the employees, the employers and the public. We must end the current situation where a breakaway group of employers can wreak havoc on the industry and threaten to undermine the industrial relations structures for over 500,000 other workers and their families at this critical time. "We realise the AECI, which represents responsible small electrical contractors, faces a difficult challenge at this time but we would urge them to stay with the process and not allow the NECI, the 'unaligned' group of contractors and others to follow them into the wilderness. We can resolve our differences through tried and tested processes. The current crisis has been generated by an unrepresentative group of small contractors answerable to no one but themselves who refuse to recognise the rights of others within the industry or accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions on the wider community. "They seem to think the answer to everything is legal action. If history tells us nothing else, it is that the courts are not the place to resolve industrial relations problems. "The TEEU believes the proposals put forward by the Labour Relations Commission are ones we can buy into as well as the employers. This is the only viable way forward to resolve the dispute at the present time and we should all avail of it, in the interests of the wider community as well as ourselves."