A fuller report from today’s Irish Independent on the Labour capitulation on Low Pay is carried below. Not alone has the Labour Party agreed to the scrapping of the Sunday premium for low paid workers, it has also agreed to allow employers to claim inability to pay and ,if successful, to pay a lesser rate for normal working days. In circumstances in which demand is being continuously removed from the economy by government, this can only lead to continuous reduction in the direction of the minimum wage and the effective collapse of the system. Compliant employers will be progressively undermined by those paying a lower rate. The scrapping of the Sunday premium will simply add to the profits of highly successful multi-national retail chains at the expense of their employees. read full story / add a comment

A national internship scheme has been launched today in an effort to bring people off the unemployment register and back into the workforce.

This sounds great Geraldine McNamara Republican Sinn Fein PRO said, but when we are told that the person on the scheme will receive a mere fifty euro per week on top of their existing payment then we should start to worry. read full story / add a comment

Renowned UK based Academic Eilis Lawlor explains why Cleaners are more valuable to society than Bankers! read full story / add a comment

SIPTU, the trade union representing Boots workers held a day of action at the company’s flagship store in Donegall Place, Belfast today (Sat 25th June) to highlight Boots attack on low paid workers despite achieving record profits of over £1 billion last year.

Workers held a protest for over 2 hours and handed out thousands of leaflets to bring attention to Boots withdrawal of basic terms and conditions of employment.

Mayor of Belfast Niall O'Donnghaile, a former Boots worker attended the protest to show his support.
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Renowned UK based Academic Eilis Lawlor explains why Cleaners are valuable to society than Bankers! read full story / add a comment

Contract cleaners protested outside the Department of Enterprise against proposals to dismantle their Employment Regulation Order (ERO)which sets pay and conditions for their sector.
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The system is creating the backlash that could allow new ways of running the country, new ideas to be given a chance, a path of inclusion over competition read full story / add a comment

Iranian Trade union leader Mansour Osanloo has been freed from prison after four years. Osanloo, chair of the Syndicat of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), has been leading workers in their fight for better conditions and for independent unions in Iran.

Arrested in July 2007, he was charged with organising “propaganda against the regime” and later accused of being a threat to national security. Throughout his imprisonment he has been subject to horrific abuse. In February 2010 there was an attempt on Osanloo’s life in Rajai-Shahr prison. He was attacked by a former member of the Revolutionary Guards state militia with the support of prison wardens. Two other prisoners intervened and saved him. Later in June 2010 further tragedy hit his family when security forces attacked Zoya Samadi, Osanloo’s daughter-in-law, causing her to miscarry.
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The Labour Relations Commission consists of Fianna Fáil hacks, failed union and government officials seeing out their golden years, employer hawks and old hands at the partnership game, capped by a Chair with links to child labour and sweatshops. read full story / add a comment

SIPTU’s campaign to reverse the decision to cut funding to Art Ability continues. Thankfully as a result of the Campaign some element of funding has been secured but not sufficient to ensure it can continue to cater for the needs of the most vulnerable in society. Indeed 4 members of staff have been forced to seek alternative employment despite having initially worked on without pay to protect the needs of the clients of the centre.

Art Ability provides training and support for 48 young people aged between six and 16 as well as 24 adults.
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The announcement on Friday by Vodafone that they are to make 139 workers redundant and that their jobs would be shifted east is the latest sickening blow to workers in the telecommunications sector. It comes in the wake of their former parent eircom’s announcement on Thursday that they are to seek yet another 1,000 voluntary redundancies amongst eircom and Meteor employees. read full story / add a comment

The recent official visit by the British Queen to the Republic of Ireland led to many temporary restrictions on the freedom of Irish workers and the loss of income to many of them due to the disruption it caused in Dublin and other places in Ireland.

Among other things it intensified alienation by the exclusion of the vast majority of citizenry from the various public events staged in Ireland for the British Queen. Only a small elite can be be trusted, in such contexts, by the Irish state.

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This Sunday, the international celebration of the working class was marked in Cork with the now-traditional May Day march organised by the Independent Workers Union. Cork WSM also marked the occasion by hosting a pair of talks after the march on May Day-related topics at Solidarity Books on Douglas Street. As a finale to the day's festivities, a fundraising cabaret was held for the union and the bookshop that night at the Spailpín Fánach on South Main Street.
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A statement of solidarity for May Day from the IRSCNA. read full story / add a comment

Both common sense knowledge and science involve belief. read full story / add a comment

its time to stop attacking those who are keeping the economy going = the workers and start retracing the whereabouts of the excessive wealth made by a select few during the boom years read full story / add a comment

SIPTU members at Boots Chemists in the North are demanding that the company honours its contracts with staff. The call follows a statement by Boots that it intends to slash premium pay without agreement from 1st June in breach of the Wages (Northern Ireland) Order 1988.

Long serving members of staff are currently paid a premium for Sunday work and public holidays, a long and well established practice to compensate for working unsocial hours.
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Last Saturday, 26 March saw up to half a million take part in a TUC organised anti-cuts protest in London. In the aftermath of the protest there has been much controversy about the 700 strong black bloc that broke away from the protest to throw paint at and break the windows of banks, luxury car dealers and the 4,000 a night Ritz hotel in Central London. read full story / add a comment

Defend trade union rights.
Support sacked Dublin Bus shop steward.

Protest Rally Wed April 6th, from 12 till 2pm

Outside NBRU office on Parnell Sq West, Dublin 1.
It is 12 months since Dublin Bus dismissed Eugene McDonagh, the National Executive of the NBRU in Harristown Garage over an unofficial dispute in 2009.

The dispute arose over management’s decision to rush in changes on drivers schedules’ without adequate consultation. The unofficial action affected five garages over three days and involved over a thousand drivers. But Eugene was the only worker sacked after a lengthy investigation that involved widespread intimidation and threats against drivers by management.

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March 21 is the start of the New Year in Iran. IUF, Education International, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (the three international union federations with member organizations in Iran) and the ITUC together send a message of solidarity to all Iranian workers fighting for trade union rights and independent unions:

“Today, New Year in Iran, the international trade union movement sends fraternal greetings to you, our sisters and brothers, fighting for basic worker rights against an oppressive regime. For daring to speak out and to exercise your right to form trade unions, to represent and defend your interests and to bargain with employers, Iranian workers have been sacked, arrested as criminals, tortured and imprisoned. Some, like Kamangar*, have been executed; others await their execution; and the threat of death and possible judicial murder hangs over all those who seek to challenge misery and oppression by organizing at their workplace for collective action.

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