Paul Hansard, a member of the Workers' Party and well known trade unionist in the building industry this morning (Tuesday)
climbed a high-rise crane in Dublin to highlight the widespread flouting of regulations by building contractors.
Paul is Chairman of SIPTUs Dublin Construction Branch and a member of the Workers' Party on the Northside of Dublin,
said he was acting out of frustration with the level of non-compliance by building contractors with regulations brought in
by previous governments to protect workers.
Paul was featured in a recent issue of the Workers' Party newspaper Look Left after he had highlighted the victimisation
of trade unionists by the construction industry. He had been speaking at SIPTU's annual conference in Tralee,
Co. Kerry on that occasion and said, "If you are working on a job for a big company and you are a shop steward who brings
issues on the site to the union, you will not work on that company's site again".
Paul has ended his protest this afternoon but no doubt his campaign for better conditions on building sites and compliance
with the law by building contractors is far from over.
Paul's employers, the Strabane based Gmac who work as subcontractors to the main contractor PJ Hegarty, far from dealing
with workers complaints have now sacked Paul and his son Dean. They are obviously embarrassed that his actions have exposed
their shady practices.
