Workers Solidarity Movement

Dublin Council of Trade Unions

Mayday March 2011

Sunday 1st May

11:30a.m.

Parnell square

The Fast Food bosses are attempting to pay their workers less, with a case which has commenced in the High Court today. [16th March 2011].  The poorly paid have often and continue to work in the food service industry.  Low wages are usually the order of the day for those who work for the fast food merchants.  But apparently in these times of austerity the owners of the junk food franchises(Subway, Abrakebabra, Bagel Factory, Burger King, Eddie Rocket’s, Supermac’s)  see an opportunity to turn the screw even further on their workers and it is for that reason that they are in the High Court.

Around 100 people demonstrated at the “Courts of Justice” in Parkgate St. in Dublin this morning (16/3/11) in support of Gerard McDonnell, who is facing charges in relation to a “floating picket” in Dublin port in 2009 during the drawn out strike at MRL. The case was adjourned until April 1^st as the book of evidence was not ready, despite, as the defence solicitor pointed out, over 18 months having elapsed since the alleged offences.

In 2009, a group of workers in Dublin Port fought an 8-month long strike against forced redundancies and pay cuts.  The workers and their local community showed bravery and determination in what was a difficult struggle.  Their employer, Marine Terminals Ltd. (MTL), was eventually forced to come to an agreement with the strikers.

The election campaign and its aftermath have witnessed strident declarations that all has changed, changed utterly. Most prominent is the decimation of support for Fianna Fail, the party that has ruled 60 of the State’s 79 years of existence. Both Fine Gael and Labour have experienced remarkable success in the polls, unparallelled for the latter. These are not insignificant, but the context of continued economic crisis renders the changes in parliament relatively minor. Whatever government is formed, it will share the titanic debt burden of the previous administration. Although Fine Gael made suitably statesman-like noises about ‘renegotiation’ of the interest rate on the ECB bailout, their timid overtures won only tolerant obfuscation from Frankfurt during the campaign and categorical refusals since.

For three weeks, until ordered to leave by a judge Thursday, up to tens of thousands of union protesters have been occupying the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison.  They are protesting the attempt by Scott Walker, the new Republican governor, to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public unions in the US state.  Wisconsin is the battleground against the latest wave of anti-union law in the USA.

The Clarion describes itself as one of “Cork’s premier 4 Star City Centre Hotel”.  Although it’s well able to charge for its rooms it cannot find its way to granting its workers a 29 cent per hour pay rise.

Amidst the myriad of austerity measures, in both the public and private sectors, there are some signs of resistance.

Some 300,000 workers in Ireland should be watching the Labour Court as it rules on the attempt by the Davenport Hotel, owned by the 122nd richest person in the country, to cut the wages of workers by almost a euro an hour. Five workers there were removed from the payroll after they refused to sign new contracts that contained the wage cut. When they picketed the hotel it got an injunction that sought to limit how many could picket at a time and which forbid supporters from the picket line.

Despite the empty promises of Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan employers have started to try and impose the 1 euro cut in the minimum wage on workers in Dublin.  SIPTU placed pickets on the Davenport Hotel in Dublin after workers were  taken off the roster for refusing to sign new contracts reducing their wage rate by almost €1 an hour. The workers concerned who are all women from Eastern Europe were brought into three meetings by management over the last three weeks and repeatedly told they must sign the new contracts or face being taken off the roster. According to SITPU they were not given a copy of the new contract, either in English or in their own languages.