Irish Examiner does an Irish Ferries.
cork |
worker & community struggles and protests |
feature 
Sunday January 15, 2006 02:32
by James McBarron - WSM - Workers Solidarity
We were assured during the Irish Ferries saga that it could only happen because it was a maritime industry and landbound Irish jobs were safe. Many newspapers editorialised against escalation and for reasoned negotiation etc, the Irish Examiner was no different.
But a story absent by and large from the Irish media has been the Examiner Group's move to shed its print workers and replace them with lower paid workers in a 'new company' which will print it's stable of papers on contract. Under the new arrangement workers in Ballina and Cork city were invited to agree redundancy, redeployment or a transfer to the 'new firm' - under new conditions of course. Out of a staff of almost 90 only eleven are transferring to the 'new' firm.
In related news Irish Ferries – Great Struggle Terrible Deal offers a post-match analysis focused on the role of ICTU in domesticating the struggle.
Many who took redundancy and then applied for work at the new plant discovered that trained printers were unwanted and were given short shrift. Instead the 'new' company, Web Concepts, is looking for print technicians and is proposing to pay them in the region of €19,000 per year, quite a drop from the €40,000 average of the old workforce.
Redeployment of workers is something of a joke as the qualified printers are unlikely to easily adjust to answering phones all day or training as reporters, in fact the Examiner had no intention of doing so and discouraged any such illusions. Relocation to the new company was also discouraged and the few who did will find a very new working regime and conditions.
Redundancy conditions are extremely good with five weeks per year served plus another two from the state. We cannot help but think that good jobs with good conditions have again been lost and that the next generation of print workers will have to fight long and hard to get anywhere near this situation again.
The Examiner of course does very well out of this. They get a new printing works with cheaper labour, they have sold their city centre property for millions to developer Owen O'Callaghan and they are rid of a highly unionised and effective group of workers. The future looks bright for Irish Examiner publications as long as you are not a worker.
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8I heard that Roches Stores I think in Cork did a similar thing with the cleaning staff by replacing their own cleaning staff with contractors at cheaper rates and worse conditions
Can anyone confirm this?
How does this comply with the TUPE regulations?
The article mentions nothing about the respnose from the unions. The print workers are highly unionised and will i am sure oppose these proposals from the examiner. What has the union said?? It certainly is not a foregone conclusion that the examiner will get everything they want..
These terms were negotiated and accepted by the union and its members. It is a great temptation for older workers to accept such terms as they near the end of their working life. With the unions being so docile in the last number of years the long view seems absent.
"Web Concepts, is looking for print technicians and is proposing to pay them in the region of €19,000 per year, quite a drop from the €40,000 average of the old workforce"
Apart from the wages, how are the employers specifically looking for migrants?
I heard the Examiner is moving to a new 'state-of-the-art' facility.
Is it not a case of the jobs being displaced by new technology?
Hey,
Even if they are going to be using hugely better machines that doesn't justify anything. That just means that the new workers are going to be even MORE productive than before, whilst recieving even less of the value of their work! Thats just worsening the ecoonomic stabilty of capitalism as now workers will have less money in the economy so will be able to buy back less of the goods - and as this is all happening n more than just one or two places it can have a big effect.
This is really just one example of acontradiction of capitalism: to maximise profits capitalists will always try reduce the proportion of the vale of a good that goes to the wages. This means workers can't buy back all there goods leading to a crisis of overproduction and recession. THis will not do for workers as it is (as always) us who have to shoulder the burden of capitalisms economic problems!! Technology only worsens this, with it being used as a whip to workers, not to their advantage. Under Socialism mechanisation could be used to free woerks from the constant toil etc, to secure a 35 hour (or less) working week with no loss in pay. Under capitalism it will be used to mazimise profits and justify worsening of conditions and ultemitely will be destroyed or go unused when recession hits.
On Roches stores see this link:
http://www.SocialistParty.net/pub/pages/socialist011nov05/8.htm
and scroll down a little bit.
Thanks,
Cian
Thats all I'm gonna say.
This type of 'outsourcing' has already happened with the Irish Independent. Jobs are going to an Indian company called HCL based in Armagh.
The same thing is in the process of happening at the Independent's other title the Belfast Telegraph. It is quite possible that hundreds of job losses will follow.
Now here is the real kicker: Invest NI are throwing wads and wads of cash at this. Their spin is that new jobs are being created in Armagh. However this is only at the expense of jobs in Belfast and Dublin. A scandal.
see:
http://www.villagemagazine.ie/article.asp?sid=1&sud=10&aid=866
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.