Ballybrack Three Campaign Bulletin

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday February 21, 2006 19:39 by Dun Laoghaoire People Before Profit

Ballybrack Three Campaign Bulletin

Defend Union Rights- Free the Ballybrack 3
>Meeting to organise solidarity actions
>Farrell's Pub, Dun laoghaoire
>Upstairs Dun Laoghaoire Shopping Centre
>Wednesday 22nd Feb 8pm
>All Welcome
>Please Do Your best to Attend this very important meeting.
>Organised by Dun Laoghire People Before Profit

>ballybrack3@hotmail.com for messages of support for imprisoned men
>
>Latest Campaign News:
>
>We are Winning- Three Collen Sites now shut down
>
>Pickets at the Collen Site at Foster Avenue UCD have effectively
>shut the site down for the fourth day running. Today again, despite
>an overwhelming and heay-handed police prescence, picketers managed
>to turn away the vast majority of Collen workers and sub
>contracttors. The UCD site is the third Collen site to be shut down
>by pickets. Also shut down by protest are the laurel Avenue site
>Blackrock and The Hugh Lane Gallery extension.
>Pickets at UCD Foster Avenue start at 7am every morning. Please come
>along and join the picket if you can and spread the word among your
>friends.
>
>350 locals marched through Dun laoghire last Saturday in
>support of the Ballybrack Three .
>
>On thursday the 23rd three further picketers, including a carpenter
>from Ballyfermot, will appear in the high court charged with defying
>a high court injunction not to picket Collen sites. Watch This
>Space.
>
>Andrew Keith and Billy will tonight spend their twelfth night behind
>bars for defending the right to safe working environment and for proper
>pay and conditions for building workers.
>
>
>The Campaign So Far
>
>The Campaign so far
>
>On Wednesday 25th of January Bricklayers addressed a meeting of Dun
>Laoghire People before Profit alliance, part a new national alliance
>of campaigners. They told the meeting of 25 activists that dozens of
>local men were being denied the right to work at a local authority
>site on Laurel avenue run by Collen construction, who were refusing
>to take on locals or trade union members. The meeting voted
>unanimously to support their campaign for a proportion of local
>labour to be employed on the site, and for Collen Construction to
>abide by the law and employ trade union members.
> On Tuesday the 31st of January Richard Boyd Barrett of Dun
>Laoghire People before Profit and bricklayer Keith Kelly met with
>representatives of Collen Construction. Collen refused to budge.
> On Thursday the 2nd of February pickets were placed on the site by
>bricklayers and Dun Laoghaoire People Before Profit. The site was
>shut down as workers refused to cross the picket. Deliveries were
>also stopped.
> Collen construction then applied for a high court injunction
>against protest. The injunction named seven protesters, though there
>were many more involved in the picket.
> On Thursday 9th of February Billy McClurg, Andrew Clarke and Keith
>Kelly were subpoenaed and brought before the high court. They were
>given a day to back down from their protest. On Friday the 10th
>they refused to do so and were sent to prison.
> They will remain in prison until they back down, or until a mass
>campaign of solidarity wins them their freedom, as was the case with
>the Rossport 5.
>
>At the High Court on Friday Richard Boyd Barrett of the Dun
>Laoghaire People before Profit Alliance, spokesperson for the
>Ballybrack three, said
>
>“Billy, Keith and Andrew are in jail because of the greed of firms
>like Collen who want to use bogus sub-contractors to undermine union
>rights and slash wages and conditions for workers. This isn't just a
>fight for local employment this is a fight for jobs with decent pay
>and conditions for all”
>
>On wednesday 15th of february hundreds of building workers downed
>tools and marched alongside families and supporters of the jailed
>men in Dublin.
>
>Successful Pickets were placed on thursday 16th of feb on Collen sites at the
>Hugh lane Gallery and Fosters Avenues
>
>What you can do
>
>
>Until Collen back down and employ trade union members building
>workers should picket all Collen sites.
>
>All building workers should come out in solidarity with their
>imprisoned colleagues. Pressurise your union to call a national
>strike in support of the Ballybrack three. Solidarity action will be
>vital for the Ballybrack Three. A victory for the Ballybrack Three
>would be a major setback for the sub-contracting system and would
>benefit all building workers.
>
>Other trade union members should also pressurize for solidarity for
>the imprisoned builders. Pass motions at local branches and trades
>councils calling for the release of the Ballybrack Three. Back any
>actions called.
>
>Community campaigners should launch local support groups for the
>Ballybrack three. Leaflet local building sites and other workplaces
>with the details of the campaign. Hold public meetings with
>spokespeople for the campaign.
>
>
>After the Ballybrack Three
>
>This must be the beginning of a renewed campaign by the building
>unions to end the practice of subcontracting. All unions must unite
>to campaign against outsourcing and sub-contracting. Against the
>race to the bottom! For workers rights and the right to protest!
>
>Who are Collen Construction
>
>Collen Construction are one of Ireland's largest and most profitable
>building companies. They are part of the still larger Collen Group,
>with head offices in Dublin and Portadown.
> They are currently engaged in a number of highly lucrative projects
>other then the public contract for Laurel Avenue, including at the
>Hugh Lane Gallery Extension, in UCD, and in private housing estates
>in Bray, Goatstown and East Wall. In the past they have received a
>number of major public contracts including one for the curragh army
>camp in 2001.
> They have also been involved in long running dispute with BATU
>about the use of sub-contractors on their sites. Collen have been
>granted a general injunction against BATU banning the union from
>picketing any of their sites.
>
>Collen's criminal record
>
> In June 2001 An Bord Pleanola upheld an appeal by an the artist
>James Hanley against the demolition of the neo-classical Wiggins
>Teape factory building in East Wall by Collen Construction. The
>factory was one of only a few of its kind in Ireland. Three days
>later the Bord Pleanola hearing Collen Construction sent in the
>bulldozers to demolish the factory.
>
> The demolition was widely condemned by architectural societies and
>heritage enthusiasts, and was described in the Dail by Tony Gregory
>TD as 'an act of outrageous vandalism'
> Collen construction suffered no consequence for this illegal and
>malicious property destruction. Unbelievably they were later granted
>permission to go ahead with the lucrative construction of an
>enormous office complex on the site, 1800 square feet of which was
>reserved for their own luxurious headquarters.
>
> In 2003 Collen construction was fined sixty thousand euro for
>breaching health and safety legislation on a site in the Curragh
>army camp Co Kildare. Their law breaking and negligence in this case
>led to the death of one building worker on the site in 2001.
>
> In a speech in the Curragh at the opening of the Combat training
>college in January 2003 Fianna Fail TD Minister Michael Smith
>praised Collen Construction for their work on the site. Needless to
>say no mention was made of the worker their criminal negligence
>killed.
>
>It seems that in the case of Collen Construction breaking the law is
>to be rewarded with praise and profit.
>
>More friends in high places
>
>Despite their own criminal record Collen Construction have never
>been shy of asking for the law's help. And the law has never been
>shy of giving it.
> Back in 2002 BATU ran a number of pickets and protests at Collen
>sites around Dublin as part of their larger, and highly successful,
>campaign to force the larger construction companies to do away with
>the C45 system and directly employ building workers .
> Fearful of having to pay fair wages and ensure fair working
>conditions. Collen called in the courts and 17 BATU members were
>arrested and hauled before the courts in January 2003 for defying an
>injunction against picketing a site on North Circular Road. The 17
>builders were fined 250 euro each.
>
>
Breaking the Law in BallyBrack
>
>According to the Registered Employment agreement for the
>construction industry signed in late 2005 by the construction
>industry federation, of which Collen construction is a member, and
>unions involved in the building industry, all building contractors
>must employ 'the appropriate grade of trade union labour'. Yet none
>of the men employed by Collen construction or by their sub
>contractors Quinn Construction and AMS are members of a trade union.
>Clearly Collen are breaking the law by refusing to employ trade
>union members on the Ballybrack site.
>
>Local bricklayers are also busy gathering evidence of illegal work
>practices on the Ballybrack site. They say they have video evidence
>of a practice known as 'toothing' being used to lay foundation
>walls. 'Toothing' has recently been banned. It leaves gaps between
>adjoining walls in foundations. This can lead to major structural
>faults as the weight of the entire building cannot be carried by
>such a gap-filled foundation.
>
>Health and safety legislation is also being breached on the Laurel
>Avenue Site in the following ways.
>* Many men are not wearing helmets.
>Contrary to normal planning legislation, site entrances leading onto
>residential areas are not clearly marked. Heavy vehicles are using
>these entrances endangering the safety of local residents.
>Piles of gravel and cement are being left outside the site boundary
>in the surrounding residential area and not being cleaned up, again
>clearly endangering locals, particularly local children.