Union vs union vs management in ESB industrial dispute Cantillon: Electricity company may be wary of dealing with IWU as new player on pitch
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Technicians belonging to the Independent Workers’ Union on strike outside the ESB South Lotts depot in Dublin. Photograph: Laura Hutton
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The ESB is in a bit of a bind over the current dispute, which saw several hundred network technicians take to the picket lines on Friday.
A further two days of work stoppages are planned for next Thursday and Friday by members of the Independent Workers’ Union (IWU).
Over 500 ESB network technicians out on strike, union says Dispute is over lack of consultation on out-sourcing and not over money, it is claimed
about 3 hours ago
There are about 200 network technicians who work for ESB Networks in the Dublin area on strike on Friday with over 350 more involved in the one-day stoppage in other parts of the country, the Independent Workers’ Union (IWU) has said.
The union said a further 48 -hour strike was scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday of next week.
A work-to-rule which has been in place since early this week will continue.
ESB Networks said on Thursday evening that the 24-hour stoppage strike by the IWU was “unlawful”.
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There is a threat that more strikes will take place next week across the country
Striking ESB staff are accusing the company of trying to introduce privatization of the service through the back door .
That s according to one worker, as members of the Independent Workers Union have been highlighting concerns about work being outsourced to the private sector.
Pickets have been staged at ESB yards around the country since this morning, with close to 500 workers involved, including dozens locally.
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The 24-hour stoppage, which involves mostly technicians, has been condemned by the ESB as unlawful while more stoppages are being planned by IWU members next week.
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The strike action began at 8am and may stretch to further days of action next week
Local members of the Independent Workers Union say the ESB is not listening to them over concerns about work being outsourced to the private sector.
Pickets are continuing across the region by members of the Independent Workers Union in their dispute with the company, with pickets being staged at various depots since 8am.
Around 500 workers in total across the country are picketing today - including dozens locally.
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The 24-hour stoppage, which involves mostly technicians, has been condemned by the ESB as unlawful while more stoppages are being planned by IWU members next week.
ESB Networks has suggested that a strike by several hundred network technicians on Friday had very limited impact on services.
However, a work-to-rule by the staff concerned is to continue over the weekend and two further work stoppages are scheduled for next week.
The company said on Friday that essentially it had been âbusiness as usualâ.
It said there had been no deferral of planned maintenance work as a result of the stoppage.
A spokesman said faults were repaired across the system. He said at any stage there could be a couple of hundred customers without power due to faults and outages. However, he said the time it was taking to repair such faults on Friday was not out of line with waiting times for power restoration on other days.