National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Fairness and Decency for Dunnes Workers – Support their Campaign

national | worker & community struggles and protests | event notice

Sunday March 22, 2015 23:27

by Zero hours worker

Support the 1 Day Strike on Thurs 2nd April. DO NOT SHOP IN DUNNES STORES THAT DAY!

Many Dunnes Stores wrorkers are being screwed over by the company because they are on zero-rated hours which means you don't know until each given day how many hours you will be working and it can vary alot from week to week. This means you have no idea how much you will be earning from week to week and therefore it becomes almost impossible to budget for anything, let alone pay bills, rent, food etc from one week to the next. And this practice is widespread with other employers.

On Thursday, 2nd April 2015 (Holy Thursday) Mandate members in Dunnes Stores will stage a one day strike in 107 stores across the Republic of Ireland unless senior management in the Company agree to a meeting with the workers through their trade union in order to discuss all of the issues in dispute.

Dunnes Stores workers want a number of issues addressed including:

The implementation of banded hour contracts which would give workers security of hours and earnings.
Fair pay for all workers in Dunnes Stores.
A review of Dunnes excessive use of temporary contracts of employment.
Individual and collective representational rights for Dunnes workers.

PSEU members can help the Dunnes workers in their campaign with a few simple measures.

Visit http://dunnesworkers.com/ to learn about the issues in dispute.

Contact your local Dunnes outlet. Ask to speak to the manager and let him\her know that you support the workers’ campaign for fairness and decency.

Let the workers in Dunnes Stores know that you support them.

Do not shop in Dunnes Stores on the day of the proposed strike and urge your family and friends to do likewise.

Write to the Head Office of Dunnes and voice your support for the workers. The HQ address is at 46 – 50 South Great George’s Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

The position being advocated by the workers and their Union has the support of the Labour Court. Show your support as well.

One worker at Dunnes described how

"I remember what it was like living off cheap frozen meals so I had enough money to buy baby food and nappies. I'm alright now because I'm getting hours but I'm not going back on the bread line just because we get a new manager who doesn't like me. Especially when they have a guaranteed salary. It's easy for them to say everything is grand in Dunnes when they know exactly what they earn week to week. I want the same security"

Visit http://dunnesworkers.com/

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Comments (8 of 8)

Support The Dunnes Workers

by pbp

Wed Apr 01, 2015 23:03

The strike on Holy Thursday by 6,000 Dunnes Stores workers is extremely important for Irish workers. The stakes are so high that Dunnes Stores management have been trying to intimidate staff for the past few weeks to try and break the strike. They have been calling individual workers into ‘communications meetings’ threatening some with a cut in hours if they go on strike, promising others full-time contract if they don’t.

This strike centres on Dunne’s use of low-hour contracts. Thousands of its staff are guaranteed only 15 hours a week. They might get 30 hours one week, 15 the next. The 15 hours might be spread over two days, or five days. It means the majority of Dunnes workers have no guarantee of a decent weekly wage. It means they can’t get loans, mortgages. If they have only a guarantee of 15 hours, they can’t get social welfare or family income supplement as you have to work a minimum of 19 hours per week to be entitled to these. It means that many Dunnes workers cannot guarantee they can feed themselves or their families each week.

Dunnes Stores has a particularly nasty management and is determined to ignore demands of the union Mandate or to go to the labour court.

This dispute has been a long time coming and the 6,000 workers staging this stoppage on Thursday are bravely facing down threat and intimidation from their bosses.

Pickets will be placed at all 109 Dunnes Stores branches on Thursday. The workers must be supported. We ALL need them to win this.

Over 100,000 workers across Ireland are on zero-hour or low-hour contracts like those used to cow and intimidate Dunnes workers. The Fine Gael-Labour Government allow companies like Dunnes to use these contracts. These contracts must be thrown out of Irish workplaces and this Government must be thrown out of office.

Decency for Dunnes Stores Workers! Decency for all Irish Workers

Staff and students from Maynooth University visit local Dunnes Stores workers on strike to show their solidarity

by anon

Thu Apr 02, 2015 13:10

Staff and students from the National University of Ireland Maynooth have visited the local Dunnes Stores workers on strike to show their solidarity. The demontration was organised by SIPTU, IFUT (Irish Federation of University Teachers), and FemSoc. Many passing drivers can be heard honking in agreement.

Our photographer on the scene says they have brought Easter eggs for the striking workers. All such gestures of generosity and support are appreciated.

Approximately 6,000 Dunnes workers are on strike today all across the island fighting for very basic improvements in their standard of living - decent pay, stable hours, better treatment from management. This has been met by the Dunnes management by a refusal to engage with the Mandate trade union and intimidation (including threats of being fired, having hours cut or changed, facing disciplinary action), and misinformation.

Big feature article on Dunnes Stores strikes on NZ blog Redline

by Philip Ferguson

Fri Apr 03, 2015 02:43

https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/6000-dunnes-store...land/

dunnes workers

by flugelrod

Fri Apr 03, 2015 17:26

I worked in dunnes in 2010 i was given on average from 4 -11 hours per week,it would fluctuate to about that,i would be on call,and would have to drop everything literally at the last minute to be at their back and call..

I was harrassed by over zealous managers,i was bullied,overwatched and intimidated,but because i had not being working there a long time,i didnt have a case for unfair dismissal.

Im glad im out of there,and i wouldn't wish dunnes on anyone,free market capitalism is a disease,the constant need to be competitive,and destroying the planet,is not what we need,there has to be a rethink a new ideaology,not communism but not capitalism either..

they take billions out of ireland each year and cannot even provide stable jobs..shame on dunnes

by jobless

Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:15

Think about how many multi millions dunnes sucker up from each community each week,they don't even publish their accounts,citing that it is ''sensitive information''....So we don't even get to see what the big wigs in dunnes earn!

Yet they have lobbyists embedded in government,and cannot even be bothered with all the billions they earn each week to provide a stable income to a dunnes worker,which would in turn give money back to the economy by way of a taxable income job,giving revenue back to our government,to fix roads or provide much needed services in deprived areas and the countryside..

Shame on dunnes stores! I worked there back a few years myself,and they were doing zero hours then too,nobody complained,bullying was commonplace on the job...

Management thought they were the bees knees,they let their status get to their heads,it was really cut-throat to work there..

i heard it on the grapevine...

by sourgrapes

Mon Apr 06, 2015 20:35

Just heard on the grapevine and also had this confirmed by reading the sunday business post this week that margaret heffernan,is knocking out three houses to merge into one,she already has an indoor swimming pool and cinema,all courtesy of the government subsidized zero hour contracts that dunnes upper management employs..I hope she enjoys the trappings of her wealth(of course gulit free as she lacks a conscience)off the backs of zero hours workers who will never be able to get a mortgage,consigend to the scrap-heap on the jobs market,and probably a life time of unemployment after the zero hour contracts are done,ie no job in sight,or as promised and waved like a carrot in front of a donkeys nose by dunnes...

capitalism

by jesus

Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:40

This is the modern world of capitalism, where workers get f*ck all and it all gets hoovered up to the top upper management, this is the way most companies under capitalism are structured.

The problem is capitalism, when you look af the fact that the water tables in california are drying up, we have to ask, WHY???

Its literally all down to capitalism, which makes way for industrial farming, all that water in california was re-directed, used to irrigate land with lettuce growing on it, they even sell lettuce in the winter(off season), how crazy is that?

Capitalism is all about sales, in fact its sales on steroids, capitalism does not care about the destruction of the planet or the drying up of water tables.

Look at the deserts created in the middle east and africa, all down to overfarming, driven by greed and overpopulation.

If we are to save the planet and give workers better rights, we need to end capitalism..

free work slaves zero hours

by cathal

Thu Apr 09, 2015 11:18

never worked in dunnes myself but they seem to have a very nasty psychotic management that doesn't value people yet earn billions each year off the backs of free work slaves.

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Fairness and Decency for Dunnes Workers – Support their Campaign

Comments (8 of 8)