Industrial action by engineers servicing the Ballymun flats complex in Dublin is set to worsen following a decision by their employer to hire workers from abroad to replace them.
Pickerings Lifts has initiated legal action against the lift engineers' union, the TEEU, over "unlawful picketing" of company premises.
The union denies acting illegally and has threatened to intensify its action from today, following a meeting of members in Dublin. An expansion of the dispute to take in other lift companies and a withdrawal of emergency cover in Ballymun are among the options that will be considered.
TEEU members have been providing a maintenance service at Ballymun for free since the strike began on November 12th.
That service was due to be scaled down from today, even before the company's decisions to take legal action and hire replacement workers.
Mr Arthur Hall, the union's eastern regional secretary, said the emergency service to be provided from today included the maintenance of one lift in the higher 15-storey tower blocks.
In the lower, eight-storey blocks, a service would be provided to ensure seven wheelchair users would have access to lifts. "We will also answer any call when a person is trapped in a lift," he said. He warned that if the company proceeded with its plan to bring in foreign workers, all emergency cover would be withdrawn.
About thirty workers are on strike over what the union claims was the company's failure to adhere to agreed procedures before it dismissed an employee.
In a statement yesterday, the company said there was no agreed procedure for the circumstances involved, but it had acted "entirely in line with all statutory codes and with due process".
