Workers Solidarity Movement

The conference of the Irish National Teachers Organisation conference has split down the middle on the question of whether to accept or reject the Public Sector Agreement negotiated by the trade union bosses.  Delegates voted 304 for and 308 against an amendment which would have meant the rejection of the deal.  Delegates who oppose the deal are now meeting up to start the organisation of a No campaign in the INTO. 

WSM member and UNITE activist Dermot Sreenan gives his initial opinion on the (Draft) Public Sector Agreement. "We must reject this deal and when we vote for rejecting this deal – we are going back to what we voted for back in October, Strike. If the leadership cannot allow, contemplate or enable us to do that – then we replace them. Our Unions are still ours. It is time to clean house – it is time to get back to injury to one is the concern of all."

Back in 2001 - 2002, bike messengers in Cyclone Couriers in Dublin got a bit bolshie and began to get organised. Always a tricky industry to make headway in, we won a couple of pay rises and fought back the boss's attempt to reduce our working conditions.

Up until 2006 all WSM articles published after 1990 were hosted as part of the Struggle collection on another server.  We hope to eventually move all the articles stored there to this site but in the meantime these subject indices take you to the pages still stored on that site.

Since the middle of January civil and public servants have engaged in a work-to-rule in an attempt to force a reversal of the pay cuts announced by the government in the December budget. Across the country workers in government offices, colleges, schools, hospitals etc. are taking action, which they hope will result in a change of government policy.

This is a plan to secure “efficiencies” by getting people to work harder and for longer, meaning that some existing jobs can be scrapped. Of course there are some sensible suggestions for improving services, but they mask an agenda for getting rid of jobs.

The President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Jack O’Connor, told a rally in support of the Green Isle Foods workers and hunger strikers today in Naas that all 850,000 union members on the island of Ireland and the seven million trade unionists in Britain would be made aware of the findings of the Labour Court investigation into the real issues in dispute at the plant. This would allow them to make an informed decision when exercising their preferences as consumers with regard to Green Isle Foods products and those of its parent company Northern Foods.

Joe Stack recently committed suicide by crashing an airplane into the IRS offices in Austin, Texas. He left a manifesto describing the long path which had finally led him to this decision.

This audio consists of 10 brief interviews with public sector strikers made during the national strike on 24th November 2009. Picketers at various locations across Dublin talk of what the strike is about, the effects of the cuts and how their unions organised for the strike.