Dublin City University officials say students won’t be able to make use of their new library this academic year because of a labor dispute with library staff, the Irish Times reported August 30.
“We have reached a point where [it] is no longer feasible” to move materials from the old library to the new one before the terms starts, university President Ferdinand von Prondzynski said August 29.
The dispute has been simmering since March. Von Prondzynski, who took office in July, said the wage demands made by the library staff, who are represented by the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, Ireland’s largest trade union, breached the terms of the Republic’s national labor agreement. SIPTU representative Brendan Hayes rejected the claim and called library staff “extremely committed individuals who are anxious to move in and get on with developing the library.”
With seats for 1,500 readers and more than 450 computer stations, the new library is three times as large as the existing library. It cost £17.5 million ($25.5 million U.S.).
Posted September 4, 2000.