27th April- High Court Lifts Dublin City Council on injunction against TEEU in Pickerings dispute at Ballymun flats The High Court injunction against members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union involved in the three month long dispute with Pickerings Lifts in Dublin City Council ’s Ballymun flats complex has been lifted. The union will now be approaching other unions in Dublin City Council to seek their support in a possible escalation of the dispute. The injunction was obtained by Dublin City Council to prevent TEEU members from picketing in Ballymun, where Pickerings Lifts had the maintenance contract for elevators in the remaining high rise blocks. The injunction had been obtained by the City Council on an ex parte basis on 20th April. Judge Mary Laffoy lifted the injunction after hearing evidence from the union that it was involved in a bona fide dispute over redundancies with Pickerings Lifts under the 1990 Industrial Relations Act and that it had complied fully with the provisions of the legislation. Welcoming the decision, TEEU Assistant General Secretary Arthur Hall, said “Dublin City Council should never have sought this injunction. Its dispute is with Pickerings Lifts, not with our members.” He also criticised the Council for deciding to give a new contract to Dimension Elevators, which was not compliant with the Registered Agreement for the industry and employs non-union labour. The union will now be calling on its members in Dublin City Council to consider industrial action in support of the strikers and it will be contacting other unions in the local authority to seek their support as well. “We wrote to the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary, last week asking him to intervene. He told us we should go back to the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court. However they have already intervened in the dispute and the Court has issued a Recommendation accepted by the union as a basis for ending it. Unfortunately this has been ignored by the Company. “By refusing to involve himself in this dispute, the Minister is rewarding bad behaviour by an employer and contributing, by default, to the likelihood that it could worsen significantly. But then inability to intervene actively on behalf of working people on any issue appears to be par for the course with this Government.”