Workers Solidarity Movement

The unions have warned that any attempt to introduce mandatory IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) recognition would endanger working conditions, pay rates and general government policy.

Recorded at the Dublin anarchist bookfair, three speakers look at the economy, what the real situation of the resistance is and what needs to be built and examples of what has been achieved in the unions to date. This is followed by contributions from the floor from a wide range of perspectives.

Public services are safe from the threat of a fair deal for four years. The kind of crippling cuts that were recently pushed through by ICTU, amounting to a 10% pay cut in some cases in the form of a "pension levy", are now almost certain to remain.

• For services rendered to the boss class
• For advising union members to vote in favour of the Croke Park agreement and "acknowledging its importance to the economy"
• Because "Realising the damage that further disruption could cause to Ireland's reputation abroad, he said: "If you have a long industrial campaign...the interpretation of it externally would be that the Government wasn't able to honour its commitments and consequently, the credibility of Government bonds would be very much in question,"

Low Wage Restaurant Workers Protest Wage Attacks at Restaurant Association of Ireland’s Gala Dinner.

Wednesday, 9 June
Start: 6pm. End: 7:30pm
Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson St, Dublin

Two more workers have been fired in the Connolly Shoes strike which was recently granted 'all out strike' status by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).  The four workers now dismissed have over 100 years service to the company between them and have been dismissed for refusing to sign a document in effect agreeing to accept any conditions imposed by management.  The strike is now in its 9th week with management refusing to enter into talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The Mandate Trade Union reported that hundreds joined the rally it had called for lunchtime today in Dun Laoghaire in support of Connolly Shoes workers who have been on strike for almost two months.

A rather strange figure is moving to centre stage in Irish politics, that of the trade unions - absent from mass struggles until recently and weakened over the decades of social partnership, they are now the only possible source of a movement that can confront attemps to transfer the cost of the recession to working people. This statement does not come with out some qualms. Already this year we’ve seen the union movement back away from its role in galvanizing its members in the run up to planned day of action on March 30th when resistance was taking shape among the public sector unions.

The sequence of tables shows the results of the ballots in the Trade Unions on the 'Croke Park Deal' as of the 24 May.  We will be updating these tables as new results become available. The tables show the number of members in each union, what the executive recommended and how the members voted (where this is known).

“Anna Sam”, as you might guess, is a pseudonym, the handle of a French blogger who decided to put her years behind the till to good use on a website describing the day-to-day experience of supermarket workers in all its tedious glory. In a way it’s refreshing to discover that the psychology of the checkout girl / boy appears to be the same wherever you go - my own days at Centra and the like are well imprinted on the brain, but they could have been an atypical reflection of my general misanthropy, grumpiness and ill will towards the rest of the species. But Anna reports more or less the same irritations - the only difference being that, on account of her gender, she must also bat away the sleazy or sheepish advances of French manhood on a daily basis.