Irish Glass Bottle workers march again

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday July 10, 2002 07:33 by Aq.

They've got the bottle

They've got the bottle - and they're still inside, and marching too.

They’ve got the bottle – Irish Glass Bottle workers still inside, and marching as well.

Some media reports at the weekend might have given the impression that the IGB dispute, at Ringsend, Dublin, is over, or at least that it has been downgraded. It was reported that IGB had closed on Friday last (5th). There was no actual change in the physical status of the plant, and it’s interesting that the ‘serious’ media should report the Company’s viewpoint as news. The Company had set Friday as the closure day but, on the one hand, the plant had been closed – or occupied – for two weeks without a stroke of production. On the other hand the gates are open and the workers are in occupation and as far as they are concerned, while they are not now seeking to keep the jobs, they don’t accept the closure until they get satisfactory redundancy compensation.

What would also have given the impression that the plant was finally ‘closed’ on Friday was the inclusion in the reports that there was a queue of IGB workers lining up for their redundancy money. That was true but it tended to give the impression that there was some acceptance of what was on offer, with only a slim hope of getting more, or that a large part of the workforce had taken the lump and baled out. The IGB workers did take what was to hand to tide them over, but that does not take away from their determination to fight on.

Furthermore, the strange omission from some reports, while reporting that the official pickets will be maintained, of any reference to the continuing occupation might have implied that the plant had been abandoned and they were now down to a conventional picket. This may have been sloppy reporting, though those with irreprepressibly suspicious minds will note in whose interest it is not to have it trumpeted too loudly that the boundaries of the I990 Industrial Relations Act are not being too strictly adhered to.

Anyway the active spirit of IGB hasn’t gone away, you know, and they plan to march from the plant, at Pigeonhouse Road, Ringsend, to town, on Thursday (11th) at 11 a.m. All support welcome.