Workers Solidarity Movement

The Independent Workers Union (Cork Branch) has launched a series of posters that have been displayed on poles around Cork city. The posters raise five demands from the unions manifesto of resistance.

800 delegates representing Irish National Teachers Organisation members from across the country have voted overwhelmingly to reject a government scheme which would have seen unemployed teachers working for free in our schools.

In what is clearly a concerted effort to smash their union organisation, over 170 Aer Lingus cabin crew have been ‘removed from the payroll’ by management in a dispute about rostering arrangements.

Jimmy Kelly the Regional Secretary of the Irish region of Unite has formally written to ICTU General Secretary David Begg and ICTU President Jack O’Connor proposing a  Campaign against Austerity Cuts.

Andrew Flood’s article “Capitalist crisis and union resistance in Ireland” (IAR 1) calls for a “debate on where we should put our energy”. This is a contribution to that debate. Andrew outlines the framework of the economic crisis and the balance of forces as the Irish workers’ movement attempts to respond to attacks by the bosses and their state. While the exact details of the government’s December budget are currently unclear, doubtless it will once again involve a massive attack on the living standards of working people.

Firefighters and ambulance crews are abandoning SIPTU and signing up with the Psychiatric Nurses Association to form a new union.  Des Kavanagh , general secretary of the PNA, says he expects about 2,500 new members to sign up in the next month or so.

UNITE issues strike threat - "We have begun planning for a campaign of civil disobedience and industrial action that will make clear the level of anger and fortitude that exists among the people who political leaders have failed utterly.”

In this program, Podcast available here on Near podcast site, we bring your a report from the Walking tour undertaken by the 1% network through the Golden Circle in Dublin 2,4.  A map is contained here.

Technical, Engineering & Electrical Union (TEEU) call for a campaign of civil disobedience. Union members overwhelmingly endorsed the emergency motion at their conference this morning.

Yunus Bakhsh, a psychiatric nurse from the north east of England has won a four year battle against his bosses.  Sadly his union, the public service giant UNISON, was about as much use as a tailor in a nudist camp.  This should be of interest to the 39,000 workers in Northern Ireland who are in Unison.

Yunus had a 23-year spotless record in nursing.  What annoyed his employer, the local NHS trust, was his union activity and radical views.  He was the union branch secretary and also a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).