Forum for Workers on Fighting Job & Pay Cuts

limerick | worker & community struggles and protests | event notice Friday August 28, 2009 13:27 by Limerick Socialist Party - Socialist Party limericksocialist at gmail dot com Pery's Hotel, Glentworth St (by Taits Clock), Limerick 0868064801

A chance to hear from Element Six Workers, Mr. Binman Strikers and discuss how the cuts can be beaten

A forum for workers is being organised next Wednesday in Limerick, to discuss how cuts in pay and jobs can be defeated. Starting at 8pm, in Pery's Hotel, the public meeting will be addressed by workers from Element Six, Mr Binman, recently on strike electricians and other workers involved in fighting to defend their jobs, pay and conditions.

The forum, hosted by the Socialist Party, hopes to provide an opportunity for people to come along and hear first hand what is happening to workers in Element Six, Mr. Binman and other companies, and how they intend to fight back, as well as bringing together workers from across the region, to discuss their struggles, learn from others.

Last week, workers in Element Six staged a lunchtime protest, as part of their ongoing campaign against the companies 'restructuring' plans. Barry Sheehan, an Element Six shop steward who will be speaking at the meeting said "this is a profitable company, who want to make about 210 workers redundant, with poorer redundancy than the company standard, and make the rest of the workers reapply for their jobs. This is completely unnacceptable, and we will not let them away with it. The union now has an almost unanimous mandate for taking strike action, with 99% of SIPTU members, and 100% of TEEU members voting in favour. And we are not afraid to use that mandate, to get a proper deal for all the workers, after the decades of work that we have put into this place."

A similar tone of defiance and willingness to struggle, is shown by Mick O'Neill, one of the strikers from Mr. Binman's Tipperary depot which has been on strike for the last 13 weeks, who will also be speaking at the forum. According to him "back in March the company came to us, calling for a 10% pay cut across the board. The next day they called all of us working at the Tipperary depot in one-by-one and said that we would have to take a bigger pay cut, up to 49% of a cut for some. We then got together and decided to join a union and fight for our rights. When Mr. Binman refused to discuss with our union, we were left with no option but to go on strike."

For the past few weeks, these workers have also been protesting at Mr. Binman's Limerick depot. "We believe that if Mr. Binman gets away with imposing these vicious pay cuts on us, they will do the same in all their other depots. Thats why we have been appealing to other Mr. Binman workers to come out in support of us. Hopefully, some of them can come along to this forum, to at least hear our side of the story."

These struggles are just part of a new wave of workers struggle. The employers and the government are trying to attack workers pay and conditions, throw thousands on the dole, and drive down redundancy payments to the bare minimum. Workers are being left with no alternative but to fight back. These struggles are not just to defend their own rights and livelihoods, but also to defend the economy, as every pay cut is less money spent in the shops and every job cut is an extra person on the dole. As well as the local struggles, we have seen struggles like the electricians strike, the occupations of Thomas Cook in Dublin and, 4Homes shop in Cork, all of which have successfully wrung concessions out of the employers. The Socialist Party believes that, by linking up the struggles, and using firm, fighting tactics, workers can successfully defeat these attacks on our jobs, pay and conditions.

Everyone interested in hearing more about these struggles, and discussing the lessons, should come along to the forum.

Caption: Video Id: csQWd14SIFo Type: Youtube Video
Video interview with a Mr. Binman Striker