ELEVATOR workers picketed a number of shopping centres yesterday as the dispute between members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union and lift company OTIS intensified.

STRIKING lift mechanics are to mount rolling pickets outside shopping centres where British company Otis is contracted to maintain lifts and escalators.

A STRIKE by lift and escalator engineers threatens to disrupt services at hospitals, shopping centres and other major public facilities from today.

AN industrial dispute has left some residents of the Ballymun flat complex in north Dublin without lifts for six weeks.

THE Government has appointed two seasoned negotiators to urgently investigate the ongoing electricians dispute – but has given them no power to adjudicate on the main divisive issue of pay.

Two senior industrial relations trouble-shooters are to head up an inquiry into last month’s crippling electricians’ strike, it was revealed today.

COCA-COLA has been accused of corporate greed following its decision to close its Drogheda plant next year with the loss of 256 jobs.

UNION leaders used yesterday’s annual May Day rally in Dublin to call for greater protections for Ireland’s increasing number of migrant workers.

A TOTAL of 1,500 workers face an uncertain future at a contact lens manufacturing plant after management yesterday put them on protective notice.

THE Government is still not doing enough to protect workers’ rights, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has said.

UNION officials remained downbeat about the prospect of a resolution to the Irish Ferries dispute as a fresh round of talks adjourned yesterday evening.

National protests in support of Irish Ferries workers who are fighting against their replacement by cheaper foreign staff must go ahead, union leaders demanded today as the two sides attended talks to resolve the dispute.

THOUSANDS of workers and their families will converge on the Dáil tomorrow in support of Irish Ferries staff, whose jobs are being off-loaded to cheaper agency workers.

TAYTO workers last night voted to reject a redundancy deal which would have capped the size of payments to long-serving members.

Concern is growing for the 700 employees at Rye Valley Foods in Co Monaghan.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will today be challenged to do more to protect hundreds of protesting Gama workers being threatened with eviction from company accommodation.

MANAGEMENT and unions at Aer Lingus are on a collision course after officials last night warned they would resist plans to cut 1,300 jobs.

A three-year Aer Lingus restructuring plan will not work without the support of unions and staff, union leaders claimed tonight.

AMID continued criticism from unions and opposition parties Transport Minister Seamus Brennan yesterday published the long-awaited legislation for the break up of Aer Rianta.

The war of words between Ryanair and the electricians' union (TEEU) continued today with Ryanair accusing the union of shedding 'crocodile tears' over the proposed break-up of Aer Rianta.

THOUSANDS of air passengers whose flights faced disruption were last night granted a last minute reprieve, after Aer Rianta unions agreed to defer their strike action planned for today.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has been accused of giving Aer Rianta workers "a slap in the face", in a letter they received yesterday.

Unions at Aer Rianta have expressed shock that the Goverment appears to have no business plan for the break-up of the company.

AER RIANTA workers at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports will down tools at 2pm on Monday for a mandatory meeting to discuss the decision to break up the national airports authority.

IF the two lifts in Ballymun’s tower blocks don’t work residents at the top have to climb 252 concrete steps to their high-rise homes.

There are fears that the lift-servicing dispute in Ballymun could become nationwide.

The company at the centre of the Ballymun lifts dispute has issued legal proceedings against the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union today in an effort to apply extra pressure in the three-week long lift strike.

A STRIKE is looming over the Government’s plans to break-up Aer Rianta’s central control over Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.

Lift maintenance operators are set to go on strike this Tuesday.