Protests planned to call for release of building workers

FAMILY members of three building workers jailed for defying a High Court order yesterday urged a huge turnout at a protest rally in Dublin today.

The families were speaking at a news conference to explain the issues behind the picket protest that led to the jailing.

Afterwards the families visited Mountjoy Prison to see the men.

Andrew Clarke, of Cromlech Fields, Ballybrack; Keith Kelly, of Ashlawn Park, Ballybrack, and William McClurg, of Sallynoggin, were sent to prison last Friday for defying a High Court order not to beset, watch or picket a Ballybrack building site where Collen Construction is building 77 local authority houses.

The trio claim dozens of local building workers had gone on-site looking for work, but none was given work or promise of a job.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke adjourned proceedings against the men for two weeks. The men can go into court at any time to purge their contempt.

The protest calling for their release and action on the issues that led to their imprisonment will start from the Central Bank on Dame Street at 2pm and travel to Mountjoy Prison.

The protesters will visit a Collen Construction building site on Parnell Square as part of the protest.

Campaigners supporting the men say the three building workers are in jail because Collen Construction refuses to employ trade union members or local workers.

They claim that Collen discriminates against trade union members and locals by using sub-contractors.

Campaign leader Richard Boyd-Barrett said this was contrary to the registered employment agreement for the construction industry that stated sub-contractors "must employ the appropriate grade of trade union labour".

Further protests are planned at Collen sites, along with a major demonstration in Dún Laoghaire next Saturday, focused on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which contracted Collen for the public development in Ballybrack.

Mr Boyd-Barrett said: "This is not just a battle for community employment, it is a fight for the right of all workers to be members of trade unions and be employed with proper wages and conditions.

"This dispute would not have happened if Collen and their sub-contractors were complying with the registered employment agreement, a legally-binding document."