WORKERS from the Packard Electric (Ireland) company in Tallaght, Co Dublin, were restrained by High Court order yesterday from picketing garages owned by members of the Opel Dealers Association.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, granted an interlocutory injunction to the association. He was told Packard and Opel were both subsidiaries of General Motors, the world's largest corporation.
The 800 workers at Packard allege that last April after 21 years in operation General Motors announced the closure of the Packard Electric plant, which is an internal supplier to Opel.
Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the association, said there were about 25 people involved in the picketing which was taking place at garages totally unconnected with any trade dispute. Damage was, undoubtedly, being done to, the business at these garages.
The court was told on behalf of Packard workers that they were prepared to undertake not to carry placards at these premises. They were not in a position to limit the number who took part in these demonstrations. They had a right to disseminate information, subject to the requirements of law.
Mr Justice Costello in his judgment, said that arising from the Packard dispute a statement was issued by the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union and SIPTU. It said that, to highlight their plight, Packard workers would place a "peaceful protest" outside the main Opel dealers, Mark Denis Motors, New Street, Dublin.
The notification said this was to be the first in a series of demonstrations.
Demonstrations took place at the premises of Mark Denis and James Boland, New Road, Clondalkin. There was uncontroverted evidence, said the judge, that these caused financial loss.
The Opel Dealers' Association claim was to stop picketing at any of the premises of its nine members. A temporary injunction had been granted by the court and Mr Justice Costello said he would grant the interlocutory relief now sought by the association.
The order restrains the Packard workers until the trial of the action. Besides picketing, it also restrains the defendants and any person acting in concert with them, or any person with notice of the order, from watching or besetting any of the premises of the association.