TEEU - Striking back against wage cuts

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Wednesday July 08, 2009 09:52 by National Sec. - Workers Solidarity

The Workers Solidarity Movement is calling on our fellow workers to support the national TEEU strike. This is an important battle for all of us, the first big blow against the employers’ wage-cutting agenda.

The strike is about an overdue 11% pay rise. The 10,500 TEEU members employed by electrical contractors at about 240 sites and factories have not been paid their agreed increases for more than three years. And now their employers want a 10% wage cut as well.

High-profile jobs on strike include the new terminal at Dublin airport, the new stadium at Lansdowne Road and Mercke Sharp and Dohme in Carlow and Clonmel. Pickets have been placed all over the country, from the ESB station at Moneypoint to the Corrib gas pipeline, which saw a fantastic 250-strong picket on day one.

TEEU Regional Secretary Pat Guilfoyle’s report from Cork is an indication that other workers understand that this is a battle for all of us: “on most sites where we mounted pickets members of other unions refused to pass them and in some cases, such as the two ESB facilities in Aghada, the Whitegate refinery and the Eli Lilly plant, workers employed directly in the main plants joined the picket line to show their support”.

Two of the biggest unions in the country, SIPTU and Unite, have asked their own members to back the strike.

Meanwhile the courts showed their usual ‘impartiality’ when Guinness got a court order forcing striking workers away from the St James’s Gate brewery in Dublin.

In a statement Guinness’s parent company Diageo said: “Both brewing and production at St James’s Gate brewery have been immediately and severely affected since the industrial action began. Diageo Ireland had no option but to apply to the High Court for an interim injunction against the TEEU and its members to cease picketing St James’s Gate brewery.”

Picketing workers must stay away from the Dublin plant for the next two days, when a court hearing will decide if the injunction is continued. The courts seem to be saying that you have a right to strike and picket, but if your picket is going to be effective they’ll make it unlawful!

The stakes are high and the employers are prepared to fight hard. They know that a victory by the TEEU will give many other workers the confidence to stand up and strike back against the employers’ offensive. And that’s just one very good reason to support the strikers.

More: http://www.teeu.ie