TEEU calls for union campaign against bin taxes

Shop stewards from the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union have called for an emergency meeting of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions to organise a campaign of protest against bin charges in the city and the jailing of anti-bin tax campaigners.

At a meeting last night, the TEEU shop stewards voted to condemn the imposition of bin taxes, describing them as a form of double taxation that particularly affects PAYE workers and the less well-off.

The shop stewards also called for the immediate release of Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and councillor Clare Daly, who were both jailed last week for organising blockades of bin lorries in the Fingal County Council area.

Eamon Devoy, the general secretary of the TEEU, said it was "unacceptable that poor people are threatened with jail while people engage in wholesale corruption are allowed to walk free".