Helpless tower block residents still climbing steps as stalemate over lifts drags on and on
That’s no easy task for a fairly fit person, never mind a pregnant mother with groceries, small children and a buggy living on the 14th floor.
The two lifts in the seven tower blocks are rarely working together because they are frequently vandalised.
Last week striking lift engineers withdrew emergency breakdown cover after Dublin City Council called in the army to repair the lifts.
Yesterday, Sgt John Burke and his team of six engineers from the second eastern brigade repaired six lifts. It was a difficult task, he said, but so far they had managed to stay on top of it.
Only one lift was working in the Joseph Mary Plunkett tower yesterday but Sgt Burke and his team intend having the two working again as soon as possible.
Especially glad to see the boys in green were Teresa Freeman and her sister Rachel, who have lived on the 14th floor for more than 11 years.
Teresa recalled how pregnant women had to struggled up the stairs when the two lifts packed up during a previous strike in 1998.
A pregnant woman, who living at the top of the tower block, had to climb down the stairs while she was in labour.
Another pregnant woman who also struggled up the stairs with her groceries and young children lost her baby.
Teresa said their caretaker was always quick off the mark in getting the lifts fixed. “He really has no choice because we just won’t stop ringing him until we know that they will be repaired,” she said.
Meanwhile, there is no sign of an end to the stalemate between the striking lift engineers, who are members of the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union and their employer, Pickerings.
Relations between the two sides have become increasingly strained since the strike began six weeks’ ago.
Arthur Hall, the union’s eastern regional secretary, said the strikers were providing emergency cover free of charge but the council was not happy with that level of service.
About 30 workers are on strike over what the union claims was the company’s failure to adhere to agreed procedures before it dismissed a worker.
Pickerings maintains there was no agreed procedures on the dismissal of an employee and that it had acted in accordance with all statutory codes and with due process.
Mr Hall said the last time both sides talked was at the Labour Relations Commission over a month ago.
“It is a stalemate situation at the moment and nothing positive is happening unfortunately,” he added.
