textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp001137.txt

5 articles

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             STRIKE VICTORY AT DUBLIN STORE
    from Workers Solidarity No 45
              (1995)


At a time of increasing attacks on workers' rights and 
conditions throughout both the public and private 
sectors, it is refreshing to report a victory for a 
group of workers who had the guts to stand up to their 
boss's intimidatory tactics.  On Friday February 17th, 
following a 3-week strike in defence of a colleague who 
had been unfairly dismissed, eight MANDATE members at 
Knightingales store in Dublin's ILAC Centre returned to 
work victorious.

With management refusing to even talk to the union at 
the outset of the strike, the workers faced an uphill 
battle.  However their determination and the tremendous 
solidarity shown by other shopworkers in the city centre 
and by the general public forced the re-instatement of 
the sacked worker.  In addition management was forced to 
concede union recognition and to recognise that issues 
such as working hours, conditions and low pay need to be 
addressed.

These workers have shown the way in which unscrupulous 
bosses must be tackled.  In the coming weeks and months 
as they follow up this victory with negotiations to 
improve their working conditions, they will need the 
full backing of their union and of fellow trade 
unionists.

The strike at Knightingales has served yet again to 
highlight the deplorable wages and conditions endured by 
thousands of workers employed in the services sector.  
Trade union leaders would be better employed backing 
their members in a vigorous fight against such 
exploitation instead of stitching up workers through 
"rationalisation" plans, redundancy deals, national 
programmes and the like - all of which are designed to 
break union organisation and increase exploitation.

The Workers Solidarity Movement wish to extend hearty 
congratulations to the Knightingales strikers.

Gregor Kerr

************

             Trinity College SIPTU

    Spy cameras, worthless pensions and censorship

SPY CAMERAS and pensions that give you no money were on 
the agenda when the SIPTU members in Trinity College met 
for their annual general meeting in March.  The college 
management want to install eight 'security' cameras on 
the campus, with a possible 24 more to be added in 
future.  

Security guards fear that jobs will be replaced by 
electronic surveillance.  Management denials are not 
believed given that six vacancies have been left 
unfilled.  Just 23 staff are expected to cover the city 
centre campus around the clock.  An additional fear is 
that staff could be spied upon, as could student 
protests.

The local SIPTU are asking for a detailed statement of 
who will have the right to monitor the cameras, who will 
have access to the recordings, and on what terms.  They 
are looking for formal guarantees that the recordings 
can not be used in any inquiry into staff or student 
behaviour, where it is not directly concerned with a 
crime.

But, as the union newsletter says, "even with a lot of 
written guarantees and procedures in place, there is no 
getting away from the uncomfortable reality that the 
cameras would mean that 'big brother' is watching you". 

PENSION  ...LESS THAN A PITTANCE

Full-time staff get a pension equal to two thirds of 
salary.  Part-time staff get nothing.  A claim for the 
same pension rights in proportion to the hours worked 
has been on the table for years.  Management, in keeping 
with government policy, want to 'co-ordinate' pensions.  
This means that the value of the social welfare old age 
pension is subtracted from the workplace pension.  For 
part-time staff this will mean getting absolutely zero 
from Trinity after a lifetime of work as a cleaner, 
secretary or catering assistant.

A one-day 'warning strike for part-time pension rights 
last year was well supported, not only by SIPTU but also 
by other unions and some non-union staff.  If proper 
pensions are not granted the mood is for a serious 
fight.

NO DEBATE WITHOUT PERMISSION

A motion to the meeting condemning the Industrial 
Relations Act and calling for a campaign to repeal it 
was proposed by the local union President, Jim Larragy, 
and seconded by WSM member Alan MacSim—in.  While 
expressing his agreement with the spirit of the motion, 
Education branch president Jack McGinley quoted rule 62 
of SIPTU which prevents a local section from even 
discussing an issue not directly related to their 
workplace unless they ask permission first!  The meeting 
was then asked to vote on whether to vote on the motion.  
Amidst a lot of confusion the meeting narrowly voted to 
obey the rule book's censorship.  

When SIPTU was formed through a merger of the ITGWU and 
the FWUI we were stitched up when we were given a ready 
made rule book that members had no input into.  The only 
choice we had was to accept it in its entirety or to 
reject it, which would have made it impossible for the 
union to function or even legally exist.  

A rules revision conference is planned for 1997.  
Oppositionists within the union should start identifying 
the worst rules and begin encouraging their branches to 
discuss what rules we want in what is supposed to be our 
union.

**********

        SOME PEOPLE ARE DOING ALL RIGHT

Bosses Get     -> Highest Growth Rate
               -> Highest Productivity
Workers Get    -> Shortest Holidays
               -> Second Longest Working Hours
   and
            -> Highest Long Term Unemployment

IRISH WORKERS enjoy fewer holidays than anyone else in 
the European Union, work longer hours than workers 
anywhere else apart from Britain, and suffer the highest 
rate of long term unemployment in the countries of the 
Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development 
(OECD).

Total Annual & Public Holidays

Germany         40
Belgium         38.5
Spain           38
Luxemburg       37
France          36.5
Greece          35
Denmark         35
Portugal        35
Italy           33.5
Netherlands     32.5
Britain         31
Ireland         29

Source: Dept. of Enterprise & Employment, Holiday 
Legislation Discussion Document

Yet we are told that we must keep making sacrifices to 
become more "competitive".  We are expected to put up 
with wage restraint, redundancies, de-skilling, and 
worsening conditions.  The more we give the bosses the 
more they demand.  Showing weakness only encourages a 
bully.

After all the sacrifices, all the years of wage 
restraint/no-strike deals (PNR, PESP, PCW), all the 
"rationalisations", all the cutbacks, the bosses should 
be happy.  Ireland has the fastest growing economy in 
Europe, productivity shot up by a massive 50% between 
1987 and 1993.  Ireland broke all previous EU records 
when industrial output in 1994 increased by 11.2%.

Thanks, you're fired!

And what about the workers?  In payment we got nothing 
unless you count yet more closures, threats and 
management aggression like has happened at Silverlea, 
Sunbeam, TEAM, Dunnes Stores and a multitude of other 
employments.

With 50% of the unemployed out of work for more than one 
year (the official definition of long term 
unemployment), Ireland has condemned a higher proportion 
of its workers to a poverty line existence than any of 
the other 23 countries in the OECD.  At the same time 
the economy is doing very well for most employers.  

Cut hours, not jobs

In Ireland we work an average 53 hours longer in a year 
than the EC average.  Even if only those extra hours 
worked by the 200,000 industrial employees were 
distributed among the unemployed there would be 
10,600,000 additional work hours available each year.  
At the average 1,813 hours worked in the EU this would 
mean almost 6,000 new jobs.

Annual Working Hours

Belgium         1,692.26
Italy           1,744.05
Denmark         1,746.00
Germany         1,746.80
Luxemburg       1,770.62
France          1,774.59
Netherlands     1,792.70
Spain           1,802.64
Greece          1,822.50
Portugal        1,858.50
Ireland         1,866.48
Britain         1,987.72

Source: Eurostat 1/95, Working Time in the EU

Irish workers produce all the country's wealth.  We 
should seek to win further reductions in the working 
week, without any loss of pay.  Ultimately, however, we 
will be stuck with the contradiction of a rich economy 
but a poor workforce until we get rid of the present 
system and set about reorganising society in the 
interests of the great majority.  Anything less than 
that combination of socialism, freedom and workers 
control (what we call anarchism) will leave our living 
standards at the mercy of employers and state 
bureaucrats.  The reality of capitalism is the best 
argument for its abolition. 

*************

   Irish Building workers ripped off in Germany

Thousands of Irish building workers have gone to work in 
Germany over the last few years.  As European 
integration proceeds, German contractors are 
increasingly turning to foreign workers.  They want 
foreign workers because they are cheaper, unorganised 
and easier to push around.  Some are beginning to fight 
back.

Spanish building workers at the 'Bonum-Immobilien' near 
Berlin worked for several weeks without getting paid 
before striking on August 3rd of last year.  These 
workers were employed by Levant, a Dutch temporary 
employment agency, which rented them to contractor 
Wolfgang Sturm.  The workers signed contracts with 
Levant for DM26 per hour (skilled German building 
workers average DM65 per hour), which then sold their 
services for DM40 per hour and kept the difference.  
Agencies such as this do not pay social insurance or 
taxes, claiming that the workers are "self-employed".

Subbies skip out

The strike ended when the company paid a portion of the 
back wages.  It refused to pay the balance on the 
grounds that the customer was dissatisfied with the 
work.  The Spanish builders were left with just enough 
money to pay for their digs.  Such disputes are becoming 
more common.

The Portuguese firm SOMEC got a contract for the 
Friedrichstadt-Passagan in Berlin's city centre.  200 
Portuguese worked twelve hours a day, six days a week.  
SOMEC has 12,000 Portuguese workers on sites in Germany.  
They get DM2500 for a six day week which includes many 
hours overtime.  A worker with a German passport would 
get up to DM6,000.

In September, twenty of these workers went on hunger 
strike in Leipzig because they had not been paid.  They 
lived in miserable conditions, three to a container.  
They worked a six day week, fifteen hours a day, for 
DM20 per hour.  Last July, Italian workers blocked a 
crane in Pankow to demand payment of their wages.  Three 
months later,  two more cranes were blocked by English 
workers demanding payment of their wages.

Cowboy agencies

There are more than 6,000 Irish and English building 
workers in Berlin at the moment.  Many were hired 
through Dutch agencies.  Workers often are not paid, as 
subcontractors disappear with their pay packets.  The 
workers thought they would be earning good money but 
find they have to work 60 or 70 hours a week to get it.

The employment agencies charge both the employer who 
hires workers, and the workers who have to pay part of 
their hourly wage as commission.  Many agencies are not 
registered and operate illegally or just refuse to pay 
wages, leaving workers to survive on their own without 
money.  

Many workers end up living out of their cars or the so-
called "cockroach" hotels.  Every month between 100 and 
200 Irish and British workers turn up at their 
consulates without money or a return ticket home.  This 
is what the "free market" means, the bosses are free to 
do whatever they can get away with.  The way to stop 
them is organisation, joining a trade union and creating 
building workers' committees to stop the unions 
backsliding and stop the job where bosses are ripping 
people off.

Sources: Industrial Worker and Building Workers 
Newsletter

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    PART TIME WORKERS IN NORTH SACKED BY TORIES

TEMPORARY STAFF working for the Department of Employment 
throughout the six counties are being thrown out of 
their jobs.  A leaked circular, publicised by Labour MP 
Richard Burden, tells personnel managers to end workers' 
contracts just before they qualify for their employment 
rights.

The document, entitled Dept. of Employment ES Personnel 
Notice 5/95, states "all new temporary appointments in 
the Employment Service will be limited to 51 weeks to 
avoid workers qualifying for full employment rights".  
The document, which was never intended to be made 
public, goes on to say "if it is not checked, we might 
later find that the individual has already worked for up 
to two years and might now be in the position of having 
enough service to qualify for a wide range of employment 
rights".  

The Tories obsession with denying people job security 
means they will sack good, proven staff rather than 
allow them basic legal rights.  Hurrah for free 
enterprise!

****************************************************
From WS 46
       **  WE ALL WANT EARLY RETIREMENT  **
   **  Teachers claim should be taken up by all!  **

ON TUESDAY May 23rd, approximately 15,000 teachers 
marched through Dublin as part of their campaign for 
early retirement.  The June 1995 issue of Tuarascail 
(magazine of the Irish National Teachers 
Organisation - INTO) said that this was "...merely 
the initiation and not the culmination of a 
campaign.  The outstanding issues must be addressed 
and resolved.  They will not go away.  Now is the 
time to deal with the issues."   Rather than 
pledging further strike action however (INTO members 
had voted by an 86% majority for limited industrial 
action), Tuarascail went on to say that the teacher 
unions "...are ready to re-open negotiations."

By 13th July, the unions had called off any threat of 
further action following agreement with the Department of 
Education that talks on early retirement would resume in 
September.  The union leaderships have agreed that no more 
than 300 teachers will be allowed to take early retirement 
annually and that the overall cost of the early retirement 
claim will be kept within the terms of the Programme for 
Competitiveness and Work (PCW).  The government agreed to 
set up a commission to report on public service pensions, 
examining in particular voluntary early retirement.  This 
commission is not expected to report until 1998.

Show of submission

Yet again the teachers' union leaders - with the 
connivance of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) - 
have managed to turn a show of strength into meek 
submission.

Talks on the teachers' claim have been going on since 
early 1994.  It was launched amid a barrage of statistics 
from the Departments of Finance and Education which were 
designed to prove that the productivity of Irish teachers 
compared unfavourably with the educational systems of other 
EU countries and that - by extension - the claim could not 
be afforded.  These statistics were blown out of the water 
however by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and 
Development (OECD) report "Education at a Glance" published 
in March of this year.

Working Conditions

This report (based on a survey carried out in 1992) 
showed that Irish teachers are faced by the largest classes 
in Europe.  Of the countries surveyed, only Turkey with a 
Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) of 29.3 exceeds the Irish ratio of 
25.6.  (The average PTR in EU countries was 18.5).  Total 
teaching hours in Irish primary schools (951 per annum) was 
third highest in the survey, well above the EU average of 
882.  Finally, the survey showed that the Irish primary 
education system is grossly underfunded with average 
spending per pupil of only $1,770 compared to the EU average 
of $2,902.*

The teachers' claim for an early retirement scheme 
which would help ease some of the stresses caused by having 
to work in overcrowded and underfunded classrooms, and to 
deal with the social effects of poverty and unemployment is 
thus entirely justified.  While the final outcome remains 
unclear, their action has had the effect of placing the 
issue of early retirement firmly on the agenda.

Crazy anomaly

It is one of the crazy anomalies in the capitalist 
system that huge numbers of people (approximately half a 
million on this small island) are placed under huge stress 
by being without a job or adequate income while others are 
stressed out through having to work harder and for longer 
hours.  The average worker spends roughly 90,000 hours of 
his/her life at work - if he/she is "lucky" enough to have a 
job.

Over a hundred years ago, when the American Federation 
of Labour issued its call for an eight-hour day (see 
Anarchist Origins of May Day in Workers Solidarity no.45), 
workers came together in large numbers to fight for the 
right to spend more time with their families.  Now is the 
time for the trade union movement to raise the call for 
shorter working hours, longer holidays and earlier 
retirement - with of course no loss of pay.

Why should we all have to wait until we are too old to 
enjoy it before being allowed to retire?  Why should we be 
expected to work at least 39 hours per week (plus overtime 
in may cases) in order to be able to survive?  The 
achievement of early retirement and a shorter working week 
would have many benefits - reducing stress and pressures in 
the workplace, giving workers more time for leisure 
activities and creating work for those who are presently 
written off by the system.

Golden Handshakes

Politicians and business leaders have no difficulty 
funding huge salaries, "golden handshakes" and enhanced 
pensions for themselves.  In 1994, five executives at Allied 
Irish Bank gave themselves an average wage increase of 
£162,500 per annum each.  When Matt Russell - the legal 
officer in the Attorney General's office who was responsible 
for the delay in responding to extradition warrants for 
child sex abuser Fr. Brendan Smyth - was forced to take 
early retirement earlier this year he was given a golden 
handshake of ££138,000.  Government ministers can qualify 
for full pensions after only three years of service.
Teachers have nothing to apologise for in looking for 
early retirement.  It is an issue which should be taken up 
by the trade union movement as a whole.
Gregor Kerr

* All figures are taken from INTO magazine Tuarascail, 
April/May 1995 and refer to the 26-County State.


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THERE IS A new mood out there.  It is demonstrated 
by the magnificent support for the Dunnes Stores 
strike, and the occupations at Sunbeam and the Irish 
Press.  As management push ahead with redundancies, 
yellow pack jobs, contract working and 
casualisation, workers are pushing back.  When your 
back is against the wall you have to push back or be 
squashed.

However this should not be confused with a fight for a 
better life.  For many, expectations of job security and a 
decent standard of living are being shattered.  And some are 
determined not to take it lying down.  
Not only do we all need to hang on to our jobs, wages, 
promotional outlets and all the other things that we won 
over the last twenty five years, we also need to rebuild the 
solidarity and strength that allowed us to win these things 
in the first place.

Victories achieved in defensive battles will encourage 
others to resist the bossesÕ offensive.  They will also 
contribute to rebuilding the confidence needed to fight for 
more of the good things in life.  If you can not defend what 
you already have, it is much harder to believe that you can 
win improvements.  But if you win on one issue, then you are 
open to the idea that you can win a lot more.