12.03.2008
Building Workers to Challenge Construction Industry Federation
The former PD politician, Tom Parlon’s announcement that the CIF wants a 30 percent cut in wages has sent shock waves throughout the unions. Building workers will not take the insult lying down.
Last week seventy building workers protested about agency workers outside the Laing site in Dublin airport. SIPTU’s campaign has started to move from public meetings to action on the streets.
The union has held four well attended meetings on the issue. The most recent was in Mullingar where 150 people turned up. The chair summed up the mood when he closed the meeting with the remark: ‘Woody Guthrie’s guitar bore the slogan ‘this machine kills fascists’.
Our campaign will kill exploitation’
The CIF are using the downturn in construction to replace permanent workers with those hired from agencies. By doing so, they aim to avoid paying travelling time or pension contributions.
The CIF also wants to use the agency workers as a wedge to weaken conditions and agreements that have been built up in the boom years. This explains Parlon’s outrageous announcement.
The CIF’s tactic, however, may be to make an outlandish demand in the hope of settling for a more ‘moderate’ gain. Their real aim may be to plead ‘inability to pay’ and to get a one year pay freeze out of the next partnership agreement.
They also want to get a new ‘yellow pack’ grade established for building workers – on €10.50 an hour for the first year.
The tactics of the CIF shows what a nonsense it is to regard the employers as social partners. During the boom, the bosses used social partnership to sweet-talk the union leaders. But at the first sign that it is coming to an end, they want to stick the boot in.
Grassroots building workers will protest outside the CIF’s headquarters on Canal Road Dublin 6 at 8pm on Thursday 13th.
Latest 12.03.2008
Victory for Novum Strikers
After a three week strike, the Novum workers have returned to work. The fought for an elementary demand of the trade union movement : Last In, First Out.
The company had tried to pick and choose who they wanted to keep on and who they wanted to let go during lay-offs. This was in breach of an agreement they had conducted with workers at the plant.
However, in a dramatic demonstration of solidarity, migrant and Irish workers stuck together to stop management picking and choosing.
The solidarity worked and the Novum workers have won an important victory. Management agreed to the last in first out principle and to pay some compensation for loss of earnings.
Congratulations to all concerned for showing what trade unionism should really look like.
also see ARCHIVE
BANQUET FOR HOTEL FEDERATION - but workers denied a 22c increase
03.03.2008
WHEN THE Irish Hotel Federation celebrated a gala dinner in Kilkenny castle, they were met by an angry SIPTU protest. Fifty union activists demonstrated outside the gates of the castle shouting 'The Workers United: will never be defeated'.
The buses carrying the hotel owners could not drive into the castle and their passengers were forced to get out and walk though protestors who shouted 'Shame, Shame, Shame'.
It was small sign of what is coming as the union gets ready to tackle an employers' organisation that has trampled on workers rights.
Last year, the owner of the Vaughan Lodge Hotel in Lahinch, Co Clare and the IHF opened a High Court case against the statutory minimum wage for the industry.
Ever since 1946, minimum wages are set by the Hotels Joint Labour Committee and these are slightly higher than the national minimum wage. Last November an increase that averaged 22 cents an hour was awarded to hotel workers. It was too much for the IHF who screamed that it would make them 'uncompetitive'.
Their legal case was that state regulation was an interference with their property rights. They only settled the High Court case recently because the Employment Regulation Order granting the extra 22 cents was deferred. This lavish increase cannot be backdated - so the skinflints in the hotel industry have already saved costs.
The hotel industry is a substantial beneficiary of EU and state aid. It has received €46.2 million in EU Regional Development Funds plus extra VAT refunds from the government since 2007. But while it has no problem taking hand outs, it objects to state interference to help its workers.
One third of workers in the hotel industry are migrant workers and many are employed on short term contracts.
We need a big unionisation drive in this sector and an Irish Ferries style protests if the Irish Hotel Federation makes any further attacks on its workforce.
See 'Struggles' page for leaflet
Novum workers take strike action:
This is What Trade Unionism Should Look Like
SIPTU members at the Novum plant on the Clonshaugh industrial estate in the Coolock area of Dublin have gone on strike to defend an important principle: Last In, First Out.
The company is imposing lay-offs but instead of abiding by the older fairer principle, it wants to pick and choose who to retain and who to let go. In one case a worker who been at the plant for 35 years was let go while someone who was employed for six months was retained.
No reasons were given to the staff for these decisions. Lay-offs have occurred at Novum in the past but they have followed the Last in - First Out procedure.
The unions concluded a Temporary Worker Agreement with the company in 1993 which governed lay offs - but the company seems determined to break it.
The company has recently opened a non-union plant in Roscommon so it may be embarking on a strategy to weaken the union at the Dublin plant.
However, the workers at Novum have shown a determination that is a model for trade unionists throughout the country. They have built a strong union at plant level and have stood up for the temporary workers in the past.
Many of these migrant workers were being paid at the minimum wage rate but pressure by the union saw their pay rates improve.
As a result, there is fantastic solidarity on the strike. New workers whom the company wanted to keep on the pay roll have joined their colleagues on the picket line.
SIPTU should ensure that an all out effort is made to win this strike.
It is totally unacceptable to pass a picket line - and that message should be strongly conveyed to all concerned.
BANQUET FOR HOTEL FEDERATION - but workers denied a 22c increase
03.03.2008
WHEN THE Irish Hotel Federation celebrated a gala dinner in Kilkenny castle, they were met by an angry SIPTU protest. Fifty union activists demonstrated outside the gates of the castle shouting 'The Workers United: will never be defeated'.
The buses carrying the hotel owners could not drive into the castle and their passengers were forced to get out and walk though protestors who shouted 'Shame, Shame, Shame'.
It was small sign of what is coming as the union gets ready to tackle an employers' organisation that has trampled on workers rights.
Last year, the owner of the Vaughan Lodge Hotel in Lahinch, Co Clare and the IHF opened a High Court case against the statutory minimum wage for the industry.
Ever since 1946, minimum wages are set by the Hotels Joint Labour Committee and these are slightly higher than the national minimum wage. Last November an increase that averaged 22 cents an hour was awarded to hotel workers. It was too much for the IHF who screamed that it would make them 'uncompetitive'.
Their legal case was that state regulation was an interference with their property rights. They only settled the High Court case recently because the Employment Regulation Order granting the extra 22 cents was deferred. This lavish increase cannot be backdated - so the skinflints in the hotel industry have already saved costs.
The hotel industry is a substantial beneficiary of EU and state aid. It has received €46.2 million in EU Regional Development Funds plus extra VAT refunds from the government since 2007. But while it has no problem taking hand outs, it objects to state interference to help its workers.
One third of workers in the hotel industry are migrant workers and many are employed on short term contracts.
We need a big unionisation drive in this sector and an Irish Ferries style protests if the Irish Hotel Federation makes any further attacks on its workforce.
See 'Struggles' page for leaflet
Time for a new approach to Trade Unionism in Ireland
01.02.2008
Kieran Allen to contest for general Secretary
Kieran Allen has been nominated to contest the post as General Secretary of SIPTU.
The election, in which all paid up SIPTU members are entitled to vote, starts on April 28th and runs for four weeks. He has entered the race to bring change to make sure that SIPTU will better serve its members. The wage rises which the union leaders negotiated in the last national pay deal are not keeping up with prices.
At present, workers are getting a 2.5 percent pay rise even though inflation is running at an annual rate of 5 percent. In order to get these tiny increases, workers have to concede ever more productivity to the employers.
In the public sector, we have handed over our right to negotiate relativity increases to a benchmarking body where so called independent experts decide on wages. It has been a disaster.
Union policies are decided by delegates to national and special conferences. But the three key officers of the union play a huge role in national negotiations. Many union members are disappointed by their failure to call for a re-negotiation of the pay deal when our members were getting a wage cut.
We need a union that fight for its members. A vote for Kieran Allen is a signal that SIPTU is changing in that direction.
Contact information:
Kieran Allen, Arts Block UCD Dublin 4
E mail: kallen@iol.ie
Mobile: 087 2839964 Web: www.kieranallen.org
