shopfloor december 2013

MANDATE TRADE UNION DECEMBER 2013

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SHOPFLOOR CHEQUETHIS OUT!

IT’S BETTER IN YOUR POCKET

MANDATE members working for a number of major retailers have secured more than €15 millionworth of pay rises during the past18 months.Workers in Tesco, Dunnes Stores,Debenhams, Argos, Marks &Spencer, Superquinn, BrownThomas and now new proposals atPenneys have all secured wage in-creases of between 2% and 3%.Many of the employees have also won the right to better con-tracts of employment and nowenjoy a greater sense of securityover their hours of work.Mandate Assistant General Secre-tary Gerry Light told Shopfloor: “Ourmembers in some of the largest re-tail employers in Ireland are livingproof that there’s power in a union.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS

Continued on page 3

SHOPFLOOR y December 20132

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

Do you have a perspectiveon the Irish political, socialor economic environmentthat you'd like to share withyour fellow members inMandate Trade Union? Doyou have a good news storyabout how being a unionmember has benefited youand your colleagues in theworkplace. Have you a storyabout how you or your familyare coping in the current re-cession. Whatever it is, we'dlike to hear from you. Please contact Shopfloor [email protected] or post your article to Shopfloor,Mandate Trade Union,9 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1

Could you write for Shopfloor?

By David GibneyMandate communications officerMANDATE has voiced its concernover the future of more than 1,200jobs at Arnotts and Boyers depart-ment stores.It comes as the bidding processfor the Arnotts debt held by IrishBank resolution Corporation(IBrC) and Ulster Bank reaches aconclusion.It is speculated that there are asmall number of serious bidders,including some trade bidders. Man-date understands that a decisionwill soon be made by Ulster Bankon offers for its share of the debt.The union has demanded thatboth IBrC and Ulster Bank put thejobs of existing Arnotts and Boyersemployees as well as potential togrow future employment at thevery top of the criteria in makingtheir decision on a successful bid.General Secretary John Douglassaid: “Arnotts and Boyers workershave gone through a very painfuland difficult five years. Nonetheless,they have worked with the currentmanagement to turn Arnotts andBoyers around in a very difficult re-

tail environment, once again mak-ing Arnotts a unique and successfulIrish retail brand.”He added: “It would be a slap inthe face to all Arnotts and Boyersworkers if either IBrC or UlsterBank were to merely try to max-imise their return on their debtwithout any consideration of whatis best for the workers now and intothe future.”Mr Douglas said it appeared thatUlster Bank will be first to sell theirdebt, adding that he had a strongmessage for them.“Mandate and our members em-ployed in Arnotts and Boyers willwork closely with any new ownerwho has the best interests of theworkers at heart. However, if UlsterBank simply think they can max-imise their return on their debtwithout consideration of the loyalworkers, then they are sadly mis-taken.“In the current retail environ-ment, decent jobs are a priority. Anybid which seeks to undermine orstrip these decent jobs will be resis-ted and will damage the uniqueArnotts brand in Ireland."

Mandate concerns forArnotts & Boyers jobs

By David GibneyMandate communications officerDUNNES Stores’ move to withdrawparking facilities for employees in anumber of stores over the Christ-mas period has left members feel-ing “troubled, anxious and angry”,sources at Mandate have claimed.Slamming the Scrooge-like deci-

sion as “inconsiderate”, the unionpointed out that the move placed afurther financial burden on hard-working staff at the retailer as wellas claiming it represented a poten-tial risk to members’ health andsafety.Mandate Assistant General Secre-

tary Gerry Light told Shopfloor: “Avery large proportion of our mem-bers in Dunnes have contacted ustelling us their concerns. With the

lack of rural transport in certainareas, workers, in many instances,have no option but to drive to work. “This means they face extra costs

to pay for private parking and alsoface the risks associated with hav-ing to walk long distances in iso-lated areas at unsociable times.“Parking rates can be €1 to €2 per

hour meaning a full-time workercould lose between €38 and €76 perweek from their income.“These are very difficult eco-

nomic times for everybody but toadd this expense to retail workerswho are already low paid is simplymean and will result in no savingsfor the company but a lot of anxietyfor their staff.“Dunnes workers, many of whom

are female, can start at 6am and fin-

ish anywhere after 11pm at night. “If the company refuses to back

down on this, many will be forced towalk 10 minutes in very isolatedareas and this puts a very unneces-sary risk on the individual in-volved,” explained Mr Light.Dunnes Stores management in-

formed staff in a number of storesthat the parking facilities werebeing withdrawn over the Christ-mas trading period.Even more worrying is that work-

ers in several other stores havebeen informed that this is a perma-nent measure.Mandate has written to the com-

pany calling on management to re-scind their decision or to offerappropriate alternative facilities tothe staff concerned.

Concerns over Dunnes Xmas parking move

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MArkS & Spencer workers acrossthe republic have voted overwhelm-ingly in favour of taking industrialaction to defend their pensions.The November 29 vote comesafter the company’s defined benefitpension scheme was closed withoutagreement.Mandate, which represents thevast majority of the 3,000 staff atM&S, have written to managementinforming them that strike actionwill take place across 17 stores na-tionally on Saturday, December 7,2013 with a two further daysplanned before Christmas.On October 31, Marks & Spencermanagement closed the workers’defined benefit pension schemewithout agreement – informing theworkers that their retirement fundis a ‘discretionary benefit’. Unlike many other defined benefitschemes, the Marks & Spencerscheme is a performing scheme andis in surplus to the tune of approxi-mately €17m.The company has also put for-ward proposals in relation to awhole range of cost saving measuresincluding:• A reduction in the number ofSection Managers; • A reduction in the Sunday andPublic Holiday premium; • The elimination of the Christmasbonus.Mandate claims the company’splans are not justified and have de-scribed the move as an opportunis-tic attack on long-established terms

and conditions of employment fortheir loyal workers.Mandate Assistant General Secre-tary Gerry Light, said: “While wefully recognise that some employersin the retail sector are strugglingand that Marks & Spencer, like many,are operating with reduced profits,the company have given their work-ers absolutely no satisfactory proofthat the permanent withdrawal ofterms and conditions of employ-ment is necessary or justified.“Mandate and our members havealways worked responsibly with em-ployers struggling financially andwe will continue to do so, but whatwe will not do is allow companies toexploit and unilaterally remove theirworkers’ terms and conditions ofemployment in the pursuit of evenhigher profits.”Mandate claim members at M&Sare now concerned for all theirterms and conditions of employ-ment due to recent company ac-tions.“Mandate has traditionally had agood relationship with Marks &Spencer. However, in recent monthsthe company has made many deci-sions which are baffling and shock-ing to the union and our membersand, if implemented, would impactnegatively upon them and their fam-ilies. “Now they’ve implemented one ofthose changes without agreement.This is not how you conduct goodindustrial relations in 2013.“Our members feel there’s been a

fundamental breach of trust by sen-ior management. “We’ve been given limited accessto the company’s financial accountsand as Marks & Spencer are anothermultinational company which doesnot reveal accounts for their Irishbusiness, we and our members areleft at a distinct disadvantagewhereby we cannot contextualisethe viability of the cost saving pro-posals,” he added.“We’re prepared, when necessary,to have discussions in relation tocost savings but it needs to be donein an open and transparent mannerand without the unilateral imple-mentation of company decisionswhich impact negatively on ourmembers now and into the future.”Mandate and SIPTU will nowplace pickets on all Marks & Spencerstores in Ireland on the followingdates:• Saturday, 7 December 2013;• Thursday, 12 December 2013; • Friday, 20 December 2013.At the most recent Labour rela-tions Committee conciliation confer-ence, the company put forwardproposals to buy out existing termsand conditions of employmentwhich has been described by theMarks & Spencer National Negotiat-ing Committee as derisory. Significantly, however, the com-pany have retained their position tounilaterally change the workers’pension scheme which is entirelyunacceptable.

M&S workers instrike action vote

‘Our members feel there’s been a fundamentalbreach of trust by M&S senior management’

ANGER OVER PENSIONS MOVE

December 2013 y SHOPFLOOR 3

It’s that time of the year again, the run into Christmas and all themadness that goes with it, the rushing around, the last minute pres-ents and the short break with family and friends. For shop and bar workers the Christmas period means more pressure atwork, longer hours and the shortest of breaks off work (Christmas Day). Over the past years, retail sector employers have turned what was a

busy time of the year followed by a decent short break (December 25,26, 27) into a busy time of the year with virtually no time with family andfriends for retail workers. retail employers in their quest to chase every last single Christmas euroengaged in a bidding war of opening hours at the expense of the health,safety and well-being of retail staff.The irony of the current situation is that none of the retailers are any bet-ter off, they have cannibalised their own consumer spending and now haveto resort to phony pre-Christmas sales and pre-emptive New Year sales. The very same false economy drove the same retailers down the cull-

de-sac of 24-hour trading and unlimited Sunday trading when like sheepthey followed each other until the economic rationaleof opening all these extended hours disappeared. As a result today we have seen some retraction ofopening hours. While successive governments havesaid they cannot legislate for shop opening hoursbecause of constitutional issues, the rest of Europestill protects and recognises the rights of retailworkers to free time at Christmas and other impor-tant times so as to afford retail workers decentbreaks.retail by and large is not such an es-sential service that it cannot close fortwo or three days over the Christmasperiod. The world for customers willnot end if they cannot buy that shirtor blouse on St Stephen’s Day.Mandate calls on all retail employ-ers to show some common senseand concern for their hardworking staff.A decent job equals de-

cent wages and a de-cent break.

Shopfloor is published bi-monthly by Mandate Trade Union. Mandate Head Office, O'Lehane House, 9 Cavendish Row, Dublin 1

T: 01-8746321/2/3 F: 01-8729581 W: www.mandate.ieDesign & Editing: Brazier Media E: [email protected]

Shopfloor is edited, produced and printed by trade union labour

Bosses must showmore Xmas spirit...

John Douglas General SecretaryMandate Trade Union

STRAIGHT TALKING

“While the Irish economy is con-tinuing to struggle after more thanfour years of austerity, our mem-bers are playing a major part inbring the economy back from thebrink.“By using the collective bargain-ing process, Mandate membershave been able to secure pay in-creases which will not only helpraise many families out of thepoverty net, but it will bring eco-nomic benefits to every corner ofthe country.”Mr Light pointed to the domesticeconomy as one of the main bene-ficiaries of the wage increases wonby Mandate members.

It’s better in YOUR pocket!“Obviously having €15 million inthe back-pockets of ordinary workers– rather than in the coffers of alreadywealthy shareholders – will be ofbenefit to the retail sector and otherparts of the domestic economy.“After all, our members spend al-most all of their income in the localrestaurant, pub or shop and these in-creases in pay will help to supportexisting jobs and create new ones.”He added that government minis-ters should also pay close attentionto the wage increases won by Man-date as it will have a positive impacton exchequer balance sheets.“While pay increases are of mostbenefit to the workers, the increasein revenue for government will besubstantial. Extra earnings meanextra income tax, PrSI payments and

contributions to the Universal So-cial Charge. It will also mean in-creases in VAT – which, as we allknow is badly needed at this time.”Throwing down a challenge tothe Fine Gael/Labour government,Mr Light insisted Mandate mem-bers were playing their part in theeconomic recovery and that it wasnow time for them to step up to theplate. He said: “It is time to legislate forreal collective bargaining rights sothat members in non-union em-ployments can join and have theirright to collectively bargain vindi-cated. “This will assist in our economicrecovery and will help to lift livingstandards for hundreds of thou-sands of Irish workers.”

From page 1

Company Approx No of Employees % increase Total per year €

Dunnes Stores 14,000 3 6,314,490

Argos 1,400 3 631,449

Marks & Spencer 3,000 2.5 1,127,587.5

Penneys 3,500 3 1,578,622.5

Brown Thomas 1,500 2 451,035

Superquinn 2,200 2 661,518

Debenhams 1,450 2 436,000.5

Tesco 14,000 2 4,209,660

Total 41,050 15,410,362.5

How it all adds up...

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

MANDATEmembers have been en-couraged to spend their money in aFair Shop this Christmas. The Fair Shop campaign is about

promoting decent work and re-warding employers who voluntarilyrecognise the right of their employ-ees to be represented by their tradeunion for collective bargaining pur-poses.General Secretary John Douglas

said: “At a time when the retail sec-tor has many challenges and work-ers are asked to bear the burden for

the economic crisis, it is importantthat we all remain committed to de-cent work and to a workers’ right tohave a say in their workplace.“That’s why our union is calling

on all trade union members acrossIreland to support the Fair Shopcampaign when they’re purchasingtheir presents this Christmas. Butdon’t forget, Fair Shopping isn’t justfor Christmas, it’s for life.”You can sign the Fair Shop pledge

by going to www.fairshop.ie

Give Decent Work a boost – buy your presents at a Fair Shop this Christmas

Picture: ptc24 (CC BY 2.0)


ANALYSIS

By Rory O’FarrellNERI Institute ResearcherBUDGET 2014 introduced major cutsto Jobseeker’s Allowance (which ismeans tested) for young workers.The payment to new entrants aged22-24 is reduced from €144 to €100per week, and for those aged 25 thepayment is reduced from €188 to€144 per week. The Government says the aim is to“ensure that young people are betteroff in education, employment ortraining than claiming”, and the Gov-ernment hopes to save €32 millionfrom the measure.Despite being portrayed as lazy,82% of 18-24 year olds are not onthe Live register, 85% of those on theLive register have worked before,and almost half of young people onthe Live register have been claimingfor less than six months. As there are 32 unemployed peo-ple for every job vacancy, the issue isone of a lack of jobs, rather than alack of motivation.It is worth looking at if young peo-ple need to be pushed into taking upwork. The Live register figures pub-lished by the Central Statistics Officegive a wealth of information regard-ing those receiving Jobseekers Al-lowance. Claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance orBenefit does not necessarily mean aworker is unemployed. They may beworking part-time, but receive a so-cial welfare payment for the daysthey do not work.Although it is difficult for youngworkers to find employment, 85%have previously worked, and only15.2% are described as having noprevious occupation. This group includes those thatnever worked, and also those thatsimply did not state what previous

occupation they held. This showsthat the young unemployed alreadyhave an incentive to work, as the vastmajority have already worked.Also, young workers are not likelyto have been on the Live register fora long period of time. During the firstsix months of 2013, about one third(35%) of young claimants have beenon the Live register for under threemonths, and roughly half (46.9%) forunder six months. Only about one third (34.6%) havebeen on the Live register for over ayear (compared to 46.4% for olderclaimants). Of course these figuresare for those on the Live register, andthere are many under 25s not on theLive register. A total of 82.1% ofthose aged 18-24 are not on the Liveregister at all. The evidence shows that the prob-lem is not that younger workers areunwilling to work, but younger work-ers are finding short-term insecurejobs.Young workers from some regionsneed to migrate to regions wheremore jobs are being created. For ayoung person to move to another re-gion, and away from their parents,substantial costs are involved. Ac-cording to the Daft (2013) rental re-port, renting a single room costs€433 in Dublin city centre, and €286in Cork city centre per month. If a young worker moves to Dublincity centre, and then becomes unem-ployed, €100 per week is not enoughto support themselves. Unemployedyoung workers may need to moveback to their home region, andsearch for work again. Workers may now be unwilling tomove regions for three reasons: 1) Workers realise that given theinsecure nature of employment,there is a strong chance that they will

become unemployed at some point.Young workers know that they willnow likely have to move back home ifthey become unemployed and themoving costs may not be worth theeffort. 2) Building social and professionalconnections are an important part offinding work and developing a career,with casual acquaintances being veryimportant. Forcing young workers to breakthese connections, by leaving a re-gion they have worked in to return totheir parents’ home, can damagetheir career and hits those from re-gions with high unemployment par-ticularly hard. 3) Finally, those on JobBridge willreceive €50 per week in addition totheir other social welfare. This meansa worker may have to survive on€650 per month. The new measuretherefore reduces the incentive tomove regions.Budget 2014 introduced majorchanges to the level of Jobseeker’s Al-lowance, with a 30% cut for thoseaged 22-24. This is a blunt instru-ment. According to the European statis-tics agency, in 2011 41.8% of thoseaged 18-24 were at risk of poverty orsocial exclusion. Clearly young people are already avulnerable group. It remains to beseen how the new measures will im-pact on youth poverty.Jobseeker’s Allowance is alreadymeans tested, showing that recipi-ents need the payment. Althoughyoung people are less likely to needto support others (such as childrenor partners), the system alreadygives payments (such as child bene-fit) to deal with dependents. This measure will likely increasepoverty among the young.

How Budget 2014 impactson young unemployed people

Good question...Picture: JSchueller2 (CC BY 2.0)

CONGRESS President John Douglas joins ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting in unveiling a new mural in honour of JimLarkin. The artwork, which adorns the gable wall of ICTU’s Belfast office, was painted by Belfast muralists Danny Devanny and MarkErvine. It details more than a century of working class struggle in thecity – from the Dockers’ and Carters’ strike of 1907. through thestruggle of women in the factories and mills to today’s battle againstausterity and for social justice. Pictures: Kevin Cooper/Photoline


TDs get the Decent Work messageBy David GibneyMandate communications officerMANDATE has called on politicians tosupport ‘Decent Work’ and not the‘jobs-at-any-cost’ approach that hasbeen creeping into the Irish work-force since the economic crisis began.Mandate gave a presentation to theJoint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs,Enterprise and Innovation, where theunion highlighted the increase in pre-carious work that has come to lightfollowing a study they commissionedentitled, Decent Work? The Impact ofthe Recession on Low Paid Workers.Assistant Secretary Gerry Lighttold the committee there are morethan a quarter of a million peopleworking in the retail and wholesalesector but the quality and standardsof employment are being rapidlyeroded.“recent CSO data shows that invol-untary part-time working is growingwith over 135,000 workers classified

as underemployed which representsa staggering increase of 46% from2008. It is also the highest figure inthe EU.”Mr Light claimed politicians andpublic representatives need to havereal awareness of precarious workand we need to make a decision as towhat type of workforce and societywe want. He said: “While Mandate welcomesthe recent news that Irish employ-ment has increased of late, we mustbe sure to create quality employmentand not precarious, insecure and un-sustainable jobs that don’t provideworkers with a decent standard ofliving.”Mandate commissioned market re-search group Behaviour and Atti-tudes to conduct a survey of itsmembership which produced the fol-lowing findings:• Less than 33% have full-timecontracts;

• 50% have their hours changed atleast once a month; • 40% reported a fall in take-homepay, on average €109 per week; • 60% were seeking additionalhours; • 70% said they were less inclinedto go to a doctor; • 97% receive no shift allowance; • 17% claim a social welfare pay-ment; and • 10% have another job. He added that calls from employ-ers for more and more flexibilityfrom Irish workers were dangerousand ill-founded.“The Irish labour market is cur-rently one of the most flexible withinthe OECD with statistics showingthat we are sixth out of 42 countries.More significantly, only the Uk ismore flexible in the EU.“More than 25% of the workforceis low paid and recent Eurostat

other comparable small openeconomies.”Mr Light concluded by pointing outthat the Government had a very largepart to play in providing solutions tothe growing phenomena of precari-ous work, including:• reforming the PrSI system to re-move the incentive to hire part-timerather than full-time workers; • reforming the social welfare sys-tem to recognise the reality of pre-carious work;• Introducing a refundable taxcredit; • The introduction of effective col-lective bargaining rights for workers; • Introducing a stimulus packageto lift consumer confidence andspending in the domestic economy;and • Introducing an effective trainingsupport system for the under-em-ployed and low-skilled workers.

GENERAL NEWS

labour cost data shows that Irish re-tail labour costs are 20.6% below theaverage of the other EU-15 countriesand 37.4% below the average ofGerry Light: presentation to Dail committee

By David GibneyMandate communications officerMANDATE members in Argos havevoted overwhelmingly in favour of aset of proposals negotiated betweentheir union and the company.It means Argos workers will re-ceive a 3% pay increase with 2%back-dated to July 2013. A further1% will be payable in July 2014.Also included in the deal will be in-creased guarantees over minimum

Argos workerswin pay rise and improved hours security

hours of employment which will giveArgos workers greater income secu-rity. Existing staff will be prioritisedwhen additional hours become avail-able during peak and normal tradingtimes.Ahead of the ballot, Mandate in-formed members that there would besome changes to the out-of-hourswindow and payment for long serv-ice increments would start at the be-ginning of years seven and 10.

Mandate Industrial Officer DavidMiskell told Shopfloor: “It is very en-couraging to see such an overwhelm-ing majority voting in favour of whatis a very good deal. “Most retail workers are strugglingfinancially in the current economicenvironment but this deal will giveour members in Argos a much-needed boost to their take-home payand also ensure they have protec-tions around their income.

“This represents a positive out-come for all staff in these challengingtimes. Mandate will seek to continu-ally improve the terms and condi-tions of employment of our membersin Argos.“The proposals have beenachieved through constructive en-gagement between the company andMandate and a mutual commitmentto a positive industrial relations cli-mate. We hope this constructive part-

nership – which is beneficial to boththe company and the workers – con-tinues into the future.”He added: "Yet again this resultshows that being united in yourunion is the best way to have a say inyour workplace and achieve the bestpossible outcome. We'd obviously en-courage all retail workers to joinMandate and work together withtheir union to ensure their voice isheard."

Recentmeeting ofArgos shopstewards atMandate’sDublin HQ

Mandate secures Christmas bonus at HeatonsBy Bill KellyDivisional OrganiserMANDATE has welcomed the deci-sion by Heatons to restore theChristmas bonus for staff this year.It comes after a number of meet-

ings with Mandate officials over theissue and follows a national meet-ing of Heatons shop stewards onOctober 17.The bonus was initially sus-

pended after agreement wasreached with the retailer on a re-

duction to staff terms and condi-tions as part of a move to stabilisethe company. This temporary stabil-isation agreement is currentlyunder review. At the October 17 meeting in

Mandate head office, shop stewardsvoiced their concerns about the im-pact the recession was having onmembers’ living standards.Divisional Organiser Bill Kelly

told Shopfloor: “Certainty of incomewas a major issue with shop stew-

ards stating strongly how muchthey relied on a bonus at Christmasto help them make ends meet. Afurther meeting took place with thecompany on November 15 at whichthe company agreed to restore theChristmas bonus to staff for 2013.”Welcoming the decision, Mr Kelly

confirmed that talks are to continuein the New Year on a comprehensiveset of proposals aimed at securing“a positive future for members andthe company”.

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• Understanding Mandate’s structures• Overview of Mandate’s rules• Industrial Relations institutions and mechanisms• Mandate’s Organising Model

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INDUSTRIAL NEWS

MANDATE members employed bythe Dublin Airport Authority are ex-pected to reject management plans tocut staffing levels in retail at Termi-nal 1.It follows the company’s an-nouncement that it plans to restruc-ture retail outlets at the airport.In October, the company made apresentation to union representa-tives and members – the effects ofwhich would see a potential head-count of 23.5 Full Time Equivalents(FTE). Mandate Divisional OrganiserBrendan O’Hanlon claimed the DAAannouncement had “caused consid-erable anger and distress amongmembers”.He said: “Our members not onlymade significant sacrifices over thepast four years as part of the Cost re-covery Programme (CrP) agreementwhich not only included pay cuts anda loss in benefits but significant re-ductions in staff numbers as well.

Airport workers expected toreject Terminal 1 proposals

“The members feel extremely letdown by their employer who is a co-signatory to the CrP agreementwhich achieved savings of €40 mil-lion and put a process in place de-signed to see the pay cuts reversedover the medium term. This latestproposal will very much be seen as aslap in the face and will be resisted.”In addition to the proposed staffreductions, the company’s plans in-clude changes to previously-agreedrosters, greater flexibility to meetbusiness needs and a voluntary sev-erance plan. Mr O’Hanlon told Shopfloor that hedoesn’t expect any great take-up onthe voluntary severance package as“all of these workers have declinedsimilar offers in the past”. He said hehad no doubt this initative was notabout “a headcount reduction” butwas “more a cost-saving exercise”. Mr O’Hanlon claimed staff who didleave under the programme will bereplaced by employees on newly-

agreed terms and conditions. Mandate is to write to the DAA fol-lowing the planned general meetingto advise them of the position takenby members. The news further com-pounds the already difficult indus-trial relations atmosphere at theairport given the lack of progress onthe workers’ pension scheme.The scheme currently has a deficitof approximately €750 million, withno real optimism to resolve the issuedespite the fact that talks, which in-cluded a Labour Court hearing inMay, have been going on for the pastthree years. A recent proposal by the pensiontrustees has been rejected and theparties are currently examining thepossibility of ceasing contributions tothe scheme as part of what staff de-scribe as a final attempt to resolvethe issue, although the prospect of in-dustrial action is becoming increas-ingly more likely as workers’frustrations boil over. P

ictu

re: D

AA

UnionwinsB&QtestcasesPAGE 12

FollowIng the announcementthat wH smith is to take over theEason’s outlets at Dublin Airport,Mandate Divisional organiserBrendan o’Hanlon held a numberof meetings with the firm over theprotection of workers’ terms andconditions of employment in linewith the transfer of UndertakingsRegulations and the issue of unionrecognition.

Mr o’Hanlon told Shopfloor: “Atthis point in time assurances havebeen given that all terms and con-ditions of employment and the ex-isting collective agreement will behonoured.

“the company has committed toreviewing the existing agreementbut stated that any agreement willonly be in relation to the airportstores.” He added: “Mandate’s ob-jective is ultimately to achieve anappropriate recognition agree-

ment between the company andthe union for all its stores in theRepublic.”

wH smith currently has stores interminals 1 and 2, shannon Air-port and a concession in ArnottsDublin store. Members recentlyreached an agreement with wHsmith over the introduction ofmonthly pay.

Mr o’Hanlon described it as a“difficult decision for union mem-bers, but one they made under-standing the practical problemspresented and one which will berelied upon in future negotiationsaround pay.”

the company dates back to1856 when Charles Eason was ap-pointed branch manager in Dublinfor wH smith. Charles Easonbought the Irish business from wHsmith in 1886.

Assurances given to unionover airport retail takeovers

STAFFING CUTS PROPOSAL


GENERAL NEWS Noteson

theFront

Commentary onIrish Political Economy by

UNITE research officer Michael Taftwww.notesonthefront.

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Starting from scratch this course helps you to use a computer and builds confidence

for communicating on-line. Mandate Trade Union in conjunction with Skills for Work is offering free training.

The courses are to encourage members back into learning and training whilst aiming towards a

FETAC level 3 Award. Courses are free and open to members who have not achieved their Leaving Certificate or who have an out of date Leaving Certificate.

This course will commence on Monday 20th January from 6.30pm-9.00pm and will be held in Mandate Training Centre, Distillery House, Distillery Road, Dublin 3Places are limited with a maximum

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Picture: European Parliament

MAnDAtE member Fiona o’learyrecently took a gutsy decision topromote the Fair shop cam-paign... she jumped out of a planeat 10,000ft!

For the plucky tesco shop stew-ard from Douglas in Cork decidedto take part in a sky dive to under-line the vital importance collec-tive bargaining rights have forretail workers.

Fiona is an avid supporter ofthe campaign and is obviouslywilling to risk life and limb tohammer home the fact.

speaking at the Cork launch ofthe Fair shop campaign, Ms

o’leary said: “obviously Fairshops are not perfect and manyretail workers in Fair shops willstill have some problems.

“But at least with a Fair shop,you know they have a genuineability to address any grievancesand ensure they can participate inthe workplace in a fair and demo-cratic manner.”

she added: “It is so importantto me, as a retail worker, to beable to collectively bargain withmy employer and that is a right Ibelieve all retail workers shouldhave. that’s why I support the Fairshop campaign.”

Fiona takes flightfor Fair Shop...


INTERNATIONAL COLOMBIA

A BID by tesco to change the con-tracts of employment of eightworkers at its Dundalk store with-out offering any form of compen-sation was recently brought to theattention of union officials.

the members in question hadworked on the night crew untilthey were moved – without refer-ence to the union and in disregardof the night crew agreement – onto the day shift.

this was five years ago. How-ever, local shop steward Mary o’-Donnell informed Divisionalorganiser willie Hamilton, pic-tured right, that the company nowwanted to change those memberswho had been on the night crewcontracts to day-time staff con-tracts.

Mandate Divisional organiserwillie Hamilton told Shopfloor:“when we learned of this non-compliance with the terms of ourcollective agreement, we con-

fronted tesco management.“Following several meetings,

and at one stage the involvementof the lRC, we secured a settle-ment for our eight members whichresulted in them being placed onthe night crew rate of pay.

“this represents a 33% increasein their salary plus they each re-ceived a €7,000 payment as com-pensation for loss of earnings.”

It is understood the membersconcerned will be offered any jobson the night crew that may comeavailable when the new storeopens in Dundalk in August.

Mr Hamilton said: “If at thatstage they wish to keep theirnight shift rate, they must take upthese positions. However, mem-bers will be allowed to remainworking on days if they choosebut at that stage they would re-vert back to day rate wages.”

Mr Hamilton added: “this caseis a good example of the need topolice all our agreements withtesco on an ongoing basis.”

wishing the eight workers a“very happy Christmas”, he sin-gled out Mary o’Donnell forpraise “in spotting this injustice”.

€7,000 compensation forDundalk Tesco members

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

AN historic agreement – hailed as asignificant step towards ending theconflict – has been brokered be-tween the Colombian governmentand the FArC guerrilla movementas part of the continuing peace talkstaking place in Havana, Cuba.A joint statement, issued onWednesday, November 6, confirmedthat an agreement had beenreached on the issue of politicalparticipation – the second of sixpoints on the talks agenda. The agreement is being seen asan important move forward inbringing an end to an armed con-flict which began almost 50 yearsago.Peace talks between the Colom-bian government and the FArCstarted just over a year ago and thislatest agreement follows on from apartial accord made on the issue ofland, the first point on the agenda,in May. An agreement on politicalparticipation is of far-reaching sig-nificance. The roots of the conflict sprang inpart from the lack of access to thepolitical system afforded to thoseliving in the poorest parts of ruralColombia. This was one of the moti-vations that led to the formation ofthe FArC. This political exclusion

Historic agreement on politicalparticipation brokered at talks

Personal Financeand Maths course

SKILLS FOR WORK

Interested in doing a personal finance or maths course?

Do you have a desire to improve your personal finance skills? Or maths skills?

But never got around to doing it?

Starting from scratch this course helps you to improve your maths and personal finance.

Mandate Trade Union in conjunction with Skills for Work are offering members the opportunity toattend training. The courses are to encouragemembers back into learning and training whileaiming towards a FETAC level 3 Award.

Mandate are offering these courses to memberswho have not achieved their Leaving Certificate orwho have an out-of-date Leaving Certificate.

This course will commence on Monday, 20th January from 6.30pm-9.00pm and will be held in Mandate Training Centre, Distillery House, Distillery Road, Dublin 3

Places are limited with a maximum of eight per course.

City of Dublin Education and Training Board

If you are interested in attending this training contact:

Joan Devlin, Dublin City Skills forWork Co-Ordinator, at 087 7419805 by

Monday 6th January 2014Please Quote Reference Number OTC 4-2014

Picture: cogdogblog (CC BY-SA 2.0)

has not just been structural: thou-sands of opposition political ac-tivists, including trade unionists andrural community leaders, have beentargeted precisely to ensure they donot gain access to political institu-tions. This was most vividly seen duringa 10-year period from the mid-1980s when members of the Patri-otic Unionpolitical party– which in-cluded demo-bilised FArCguerrillas aswell as tradeunionists,peasant farm-ers, and thoselooking for asocial transfor-mation inColombia –were targetedby a combination of state forces andparamilitary death squads. Up to 5,000 party members werekilled, including two presidentialcandidates and eight congressmen.The agreement has focused on en-suring both the necessary structuralchanges and security guarantees toenable a far wider access to the po-

litical system. Some of these changesinclude transitory electoral arrange-ments in areas most affected by thearmed conflict, the creation of astatute guaranteeing rights to thepolitical opposition, and a reform ofthe electoral system. There are also changes proposedto guarantee greater access to themedia and guarantees in terms ofsecurity for demobilised guerrillastaking part in electoral politics. This is without doubt an impor-tant step forward in terms of thepeace process and in achieving in-creased equality and social justice inColombia.It was hailed by opposition politi-cian Ivan Cepeda, pictured inset left,whose father was an assassinatedcongressman for the Patriotic Union,as a “clear demonstration that wecan really believe that peace is pos-sible”.As with previous agreementsmade on the issue of land, nothingwill be implemented until all thepoints have been agreed. The four points to follow are:drugs and illicit crops, victims, end-ing the armed conflict, and imple-mentation.

‘There is need to police all our agreements with Tesco’

IT HAS been reported that Swedishmultinational retailer is in trouble inFrance among other places. In France, the retailer has beenplaced under investigation by prose-cutors examining allegations of spy-ing on staff and customers. The IkEA store in Versailles,France was raided by police whoseized documents and computers fol-lowing allegations that IkEA spied onworkers who were members of tradeunion groups. In Ireland Mandate has had prob-lems with IkEA. Our union organis-

ers have been consistently forced toremove themselves from the store inBallymun, Dublin, and even told toleave the car park. One might ask what IkEA has tohide when it is so concerned aboutits employees speaking to tradeunions? Time will tell whether flat-pack furniture equals to flat-packconditions of employment.Don’t forget, this Christmas astrade unionists to check out www.fair-shop.ie before shopping – you won’tfind IkEA there! Spend your moneywhere workers count.

IKEA WATCH

It’s I spy IKEA!


INDUSTRIAL NEWS

Starting from scratch this course helps you to improve your communications skills. Mandate Trade Union in conjunction with Skills for Work are offering members the opportunity to attend training. The courses are to encourage members back into learning

and training while aiming towards a FETAC level 3 Award. Mandate are offering these courses to members who have not achieved their Leaving Certificate or who have an out-of-date Leaving Certificate.

This course will commence on Monday the 20th January from 6.30pm-9.00pm and will be held in Mandate Training Centre, Distillery House, Distillery Road, Dublin 3

Places are limited with a maximum of eight per course.

Communication skills

If you are interested in attending this training contact:Joan Devlin, Dublin City Skills for Work Co-ordinator, at 087 7419805 by Monday 6th January 2014

Please Quote Reference Number OTC 5-2014

City of Dublin Education and Training BoardSKILLS FOR WORK

Interested in doing a Communications course?Do you have a desire to improve your communications skills, but never got around to it?

A NATIONAL meeting of Tesco Ire-land shop stewards was held at theCWU’s Dublin offices on November18. It was convened to seek endorse-ment of the strategy proposed by theTesco National Negotiating Team: toenter immediate talks with the re-tailer on a single-item agenda – pay. representatives, who were wel-comed by Mandate Assistant GeneralSecretary Gerry Light, were informedthat the most recent pay agreement,allowing for a 2% increase across allrates of pay from the January 1, 2013,is set to expire on December 31 thisyear.Mandate – the union that repre-sents the vast majority of Tesco Ire-land’s 15,200 staff – is anxious thatthere is no slippage occurs betweenthe end of the current agreement andwhatever deal succeeds it. Divisional Organiser BrendanO’Hanlon told Shopfloor: “Membersworking for Tesco Ireland have beenvery responsible over the past num-ber of years regarding pay increases. “However, it is imperative that webuild on the agreement reached in2012 and ensure that our members’pay not only keeps pace with infla-tion but continues to move towards adecent wage.”He added: “This would be a smallrecognition for their contribution tothe company’s undeclared significant

profits.” The meeting, which was at-tended by more than 100 local unionrepresentatives, was informed of de-velopments on a range of issues.These included information onTesco’s Dot Com drivers and teamleaders’ terms and conditions as wellas issues relating to Express storesand retail security officers.The appli-

cation of the 2003 night shift agree-ment to those members affected byTesco’s decision to cease 24-hourtrading in all but three of outlets wasalso referred to. A detailed presentation was givenabout the progress made in theseareas and the clear benefits attached

to focussed engagement on behalf ofcategories of workers as opposed tonegotiations dealing with a diversemembership. Mr O’Hanlon said: “Organisingworkers to take responsibility forevents in their workplace and identi-fying agendas which seek to bring

improvements in their working con-ditions has to be the way forward. “We cannot allow employers tokeep using pay negotiations to seekconcessions from workers and causefurther division among staff.”Mandate is seeking an early meet-ing with the company to discussmembers’ claim. At the meeting, MrLight expressed concern about thegrowing number of individual casesbeing referred to third parties due toTesco’s deliberate misinterpretationof local and national agreements.He cited as a recent exampleTesco’s bid to unilaterally break along-standing agreement about ros-tering for traditional Christmas Sun-days. As a result of direct discussionsand the union’s request for an urgent

LrC hearing, the company has agreedon a without-prejudice basis to hon-our the agreement this year with aview to entering discussions early inthe New Year. Notwithstanding this positive de-velopment, it is clear there is a neces-sity to re-examine thecompany/union procedures with aview to developing a robust processdesigned to either prevent or limitthe number of issues in dispute.Mr Light assured those presentthat Mandate would work with theNational Negotiating Team and thecompany to help bring about a morepositive working relationship.

Pay topsagenda at Tescoshopstewardsmeeting ‘We cannot

allow employersto keep usingpay talks to seekconcessionsfrom workersand causefurther division among staff’


INDUSTRIAL NEWS

By David GibneyMandate communications officerA rALLY in support of sacked Con-nolly Shoes workers was held in DunLaoghaire on November 7.The four workers, who were un-fairly dismissed more than threeyears ago, have still not receivedcompensation from their employer.Following their dismissal in 2011,the workers – John Mulpetre, Damiankeegan, Susan Tonge and PatrickByrne – were awarded compensationsums in excess of €100,000 over var-ious breaches in employment law, in-cluding unfair dismissals.One of the workers, John Mulpetre,has picketed the store five days aweek for more than three years seek-ing justice and his entitlements.Mandate General Secretary JohnDouglas said: “After three years andseven months, these workers deservejustice. It is shameful that they still

haven’t received the compensationthat they are legally entitled to and itis even more shameful that the Irishindustrial relations system allowsrogue employers like Matthew Con-nolly to continue as a director aftergiving these workers the run-aroundfor so long.”Mr Douglas slammed Irish com-pany and employment law and calledon politicians to address obvious in-adequacies in the legislation.“As it stands, the legislation allowsmanagers like Mr Connolly to hidebehind a veil of corporate secrecy inorder to avoid their responsibilitiesas employers. “Transferring assets from one com-pany to another and avoiding sanc-tions while employees like JohnMulpetre, who gave 38 loyal years ofservice to the company, are left out inthe cold and rain fighting for justice.”

Connolly Shoes worker JohnMulpetre told Shopfloor: “I’ve beenon strike for more than three yearstrying to receive some level of justicefrom my former employer who hastreated all of us appallingly. “Matthew Connolly, owner of Con-nolly Shoes, has absolutely no con-cept of loyalty and his disregard forthe combined service of 100 yearswe gave his company is a real kick inthe teeth for all of us.“However, the level of supportwe’ve received from the local com-munity in Dun Laoghaire has been

immense,” he added. “I certainlywould not be picketing this employernow if it wasn’t for the fantastic sup-port I’ve received since 2010.”Vowing that he would continue hiscampaign for justice, Mr Mulpetreadded: “I’m not going anywhere. Iwill continue to picket my formeremployer and with the support of myunion and the local community I’mdetermined to achieve a fair and justresolution for all of the sacked work-ers. “This is now a matter of principle.”

Solidarity: November 7 protest outsideShoe X Culsive, formerly Connolly Shoes

‘Fighting for justice’: Congress President John Douglas, above, lashes rogue employers at protest.John Mulpetre, left, who gave 38 years of loyal service to Connolly Shoes, continues the picket

Pictures: Mandate

Justice forthe ConnollyShoes four!


Union Representatives Introductory Course

Course content:• Background to Mandate.

• The role and responsibilities of a Shop Steward/Union Representative.• Examining disciplinary/grievance procedures.

• Developing negotiating skills.• Representing members at local level.

• Communication skills/solving members’ problems.• Organising, Recruitment and Campaigns.

• Induction presentations.

Certification and Progression:Members who successfully complete this course will obtain a

Mandate certificate. They may progress to a Union Representative Advanced Course and to other relevant training courses

offered by Mandate.

If you are interested in this course, please contact your Mandate official or Mandate's Training Centre at 01-8369699. Email: [email protected]

The Union Representative IntroductoryTraining Course is for new shop stewards/union representatives. The course aims to provide information,skills and knowledge to our shop stewards/union representatives to assistthem in their role in the workplace.

UNIONREP

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

BOOTS retail Ireland Limited has fi-nally agreed to attend the LabourCourt after three days of local negoti-ations failed to produce a break-through in the long-running paydispute. Mandate agreed to further localpay talks following a conciliationconference in September where thecompany asked the union to fully ex-plore a proposal being tabled. The union agreed to the local dis-cussions provided they took place ona without-prejudice basis and thatthe company agreed to joint referralto the Labour Court if the talks endedwithout agreement. The talks focussed on anumber of matters,around the out-standing issue of apay increase for allBoots employees,the unfreezing of in-crements and thenon-payment of a bonusto almost 20% of its employees.Those on the pre-2009 pay scale(numbering roughly 400 employees,or about 20% of Boots Ireland staff)did not receive the 2% pay increasepaid to Boots Ireland employees inJune, as it applied only to those onthe realigned 2009 scale. Bonuses have also stopped for thepre-2009 pay scale employees, whilethose on the realigned scale can re-ceive an annual bonus for demon-strating “performing and legendary”service Parties met at the LrC in Septem-ber, following a Boots request formore time to consider its positionover Mandate proposals on pay.The union is seeking a 3% pay in-

crease for all Boots employees back-dated to June 2012. The LrC session ended with agree-ment to meet again for two days ofdirect discussion on the pay issue, in-cluding pay increases and harmoni-sation of scales. Divisional Organiser BrendanO’Hanlon said that while someprogress was made during the localdiscussions, a considerable gap stillexisted between the parties and itwas not possible reach agreement. The Labour relations Commissionwas advised that the talks had failedand requested the issue in dispute bereferred to the Labour Court. However, it became cleardespite previously agree-ing to the referral, thatthe company werenow reneging on thecommitment as it wasseeking a further con-ciliation conference to dis-cuss what it described as“procedural matters”. A further conciliation conferencetook place in November and it wasagreed that the issues of the pay in-crease, the unfreezing of increments,non-payment of the June bonus andpay alignment would be referred. Mr O’Hanlon said: “UltimatelyMandate remains committed to en-suring that a fair and equitable solu-tion is found in the interests of all ourmembers in Boots. “The Labour Court recommenda-tion will provide the opportunity todetermine whether or not this hasbeen achieved and, more impor-tantly, what they are prepared to doin pursuit of such an outcome if itsnot.”

Boots agree to goto Labour Courtafter talks fail

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FOR FIRST TIME AND YOUNG DRIVERS

By Michael MeeganDivisional OrganiserstAFF at Penneys Mary street havereceived €50 each for their cooper-ation during a recent major refur-bishment of the Dublin store.

the one-off payment followedtalks between Mandate and man-agement representatives.

the building work, carried out intrading hours over a number ofmonths, substantially increasedfloor space for trading.

Mary street staff contributedfully and without complaint as thebuilding work progressed. After

the work was completed, Mandateopened discussions with manage-ment to highlight the large contri-bution made by members to thehugely successful refurbishment.

After a number of meetings, anagreement was reached.

this resulted in all Mandatemembers who were in employ-ment during the refurbishmentand who were still in employmenton date of agreement receiving aone-off payment of €50 for theirfull cooperation while the workwas carried out.

Staff at PenneysDublin store pocketrefurbishment bonus


MANDATE has won a number of testcases on behalf of members at B&Qat the rights Commissioner’s service.They involved B&Q summer andChristmas bonuses and a zone al-lowance, which the company hadunilaterally deducted from members’wages. Mandate have now called on theDIY store to do the right thing andpay their workers what they areowed.B&Q management had withdrawna Christmas bonus, summer bonusand a zone allowance (which appliedonly to workers in their Liffey Valley,Swords and Tallaght stores) withoutagreement. Since 2012, Mandate hasprocessed claims for a reversal ofthat decision on behalf of its mem-bers, all of which have been won bythe union. However, as each claim must beprocessed individually, this meanshundreds would have to go throughthe rights Commissioner’s office.At a rights Commissioner’s hear-ing on July 22, B&Q management ver-bally agreed to take a number of testcases rather than have hundreds of

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

Mandate win B&Q test casesat the Rights Commissioners

Union Representative

Advanced Senior CourseThe Union Representative Advanced Senior Training Course is for union

representatives who have completed the Introductory and Advanced course and

who have experience as a union representative in their workplace

The history of trade unionism

The emergence and development of the market system

The impact of globalisation

Free trade and open markets in a modern society

Certification and Progression: Members who successfully complete this training course

will obtain a Mandate certificate. They may progress to the FETAC level 5 Certificate in Trade Union studies or other

relevant training courses offered by Mandate.

If you are interested in this course, please contact your Mandate Official

or Mandate's Training Centre at 01-8369699. Email: [email protected]

Course content

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Divisional Organiser Mandy Kanecases clogging up the state’s mecha-nisms for resolving industrial dis-putes. Now that the test cases have allbeen heard and won by Mandatemembers, the union has written tothe company calling on them to paythe awards to all staff entitled to apayout and to restore the paymentsto their workers as a matter of ur-gency.Mandate’s Divisional OrganiserMandy kane, who took a number ofsuccessful cases in July, toldShopfloor: “Our members need to be

congratulated for their perseveranceand their patience in relation to thisongoing claim. The whole processhas been painfully slow but, hope-fully, the company will now see senseand give these workers what they’reentitled to. “The company needs to do the ho-nourable thing and hold up their endof the agreement. “We’re talking about a relativelyminor sum of money for a majormultinational like B&Q, whose parentcompany is the kingfisher Group andis worth billions.”Praising the solidarity shown byB&Q workers, Mandate’s IndustrialOfficer Jonathan Hogan said: “Whenan issue like this is brought to thefore, it can be very frustrating. “Our members in B&Q made a con-scious decision not to roll over whilethe company removed hard foughtterms and conditions of employment. “They fought for something theyfelt was fair and just and they’ve won.Mandate is now calling on B&Q man-agement to pay the monies owed toMandate’s members and accept therecommendations of the rights Com-missioners.”‘Our members in B&Q made a conscious decision not to roll over while thecompany removed hard fought terms and conditions of employment...’

LEADING Palestinian trade unionist Dr Mohammed OM Amara is presented with a 1913 Lockout commemo-rative sterling silver coin by Congress President JohnDouglas following his presentation to ICTU’s ExecutiveCouncil on November 20. At the presentation, DrAmara, representing the PGFTU, outlined the eco-nomic impact of the Israeli occupation which hadcaused devastating levels of unemployment as well as

the day to day humiliation of Palestinian workers atIDF checkpoints as they travelled to and from work. DrOmara asked for help from Irish trade unions in sup-porting sanctions against Israel as well as the boycottof Israeli goods, especially of goods and services fromillegal settlements. For list of Israeli products go to:

Palestinian trade unionist in sanctions call

www.ipsc.ie/campaigns/consumer-boycott


MANDATE members at Wallis storesin Limerick and Dublin have secureda significantly enhanced redundancyoffer following nearly five weeks ofstrike action.In September, retail group ArcadiaMultiples Ireland Limited announcedplans to close two of its Wallis storesin Cruises Street, Limerick andGrafton Street, Dublin.It also announced that it would berestructuring its stores in Childersroad and Crescent Shopping Centre,Limerick, and its Dublin outlets onHenry Street and in Clearys.A number of loyal Wallis staff –some with 28 years of service – weremade redundant in the shock move.This appalling news was furthercompounded when it was revealedthat the firm intended to renege onpreviously agreed redundancy termsof five weeks pay for each year ofservice, instead paying those selectedfor redundancy 2.75 weeks a year. The workers made it clear theywere not prepared to accept the infe-rior offer, particularly when col-leagues in two other locations hadreceived the agreed redundancyterms only nine months before.Also, the firm had only just paid€92 million to its Uk-based parentcompany.After a unanimous ballot in favourof taking industrial action, workers atthe closed down Cruises Street storebegan a picket at the Wallis outlet onChilders road.They received 100% backing fromtheir colleagues at the Childers roadstore who also joined the picket line.A great deal of support was alsoshown by the general public over thecourse of five weeks with those onthe picket line reporting many acts of

kindness and generosity. Local Man-date Divisional Organiser karen Wallpraised both Mandate members andthe public for their acts of solidarity.She told Shopfloor: “In these diffi-cult times for everyone, it is ab-solutely reassuring that some senseof collectivism exists and it demon-strates what can be achieved whenthe so-called ordinary people sticktogether.”Despite initially stating – in keep-ing with the company/union agree-ment – that they were prepared toattend the Labour relations Commis-sion (LrC), the company refused to

attend despite being contacted by theCommission directly. Describing the move as a “disturb-ing development”, Divisional Organ-iser Brendan O’Hanlon said: “Itdemonstrated from the outset thecompany’s intentions to face theworkers down. This was a fatal mis-take on their part and a gross under-estimation of the resolve ourmembers would later display, despitethe difficult circumstances. “The only reason for some of thoseon strike was to show solidarity withfellow union members – an extraor-dinary act in a society which verymuch appears driven by individual-ism and an ‘I’m alright’ mentality.”In a further move, the Arcadiagroup closed the Grafton Street storeon October 16. Following this, pickets

were also placed after another unani-mous vote was taken in favour of tak-ing industrial action. Pickets were then transferred tothe Wallis store on Henry Street.Once again workers inside the HenryStreet store showed their full supportby joining their colleagues on thepicket line. Local Mandate official DavidMoran told Shopfloor: “The effect ofthe pickets really cannot be over-stated – customers refused to passthe picket line. The company appear-ing to be willing to lose hundreds ofthousands in potential sales to make

their point.” As the industrial actioncontinued, workers in the Wallisstore in Blanchardstown – who weretotally unaffected by the company’splans – unanimously voted in favourof taking industrial in support oftheir striking colleagues.The company was served withstrike notice to take effect on Satur-day, October 26 at 9am. The culmination of action and thepotential for further stores to bedrawn into the dispute finallybrought the company to its sensesand through a series of indirect dis-cussions, proposals were agreed.These were overwhelmingly ac-cepted by the workers affected in alllocations, bringing an end to the dis-pute. As a result staff who did not ac-cept a redeployment option were

offered redundancy terms based onfour weeks pay for each year of serv-ice.Commenting on the outcome of thedispute, Wallis worker Denise red-mond said: “None of the workerswanted to go on strike but when youremployer breaks an agreement andthen tries to force you to take muchlesser terms, you’re left with nochoice but to stand up for yourself. “We were always willing to com-promise but the company refused toengage and thought that we wouldjust accept what was on offer andgo – they were so wrong.

“People say you don’t need to be ina union these days, they couldn’t bemore wrong, without our union wewould have been cast aside as indi-viduals with no chance.” Limerick worker Clare White re-called: “We had tears, laughs, sing-songs and only for the union’ssupport, we would have been lost.“What was most inspirational tome was the professionalism of theunion and this left me with no doubtthat the union was there to representus the workers.”Cruises Street store worker Mar-garet Braddish, who had 17 yearsservice with the company, was onstrike for more than five weeks.Thanking her colleagues and unionfor all the support and hard work,she said: “I felt really annoyed at the

way the company were treating usand I knew that I wasn’t going to tol-erate it. “However, it was extremely diffi-cult to ask colleagues to take indus-trial action and to lose their wagesevery week, so as we could get afairer deal, but I was amazed at thesolidarity shown, they were brilliant. “I was on strike in Limerick andDublin during the dispute and thesupport shown by the general publicwas fantastic. “I was never so glad I was part of atrade union and the effort and timeput in on our behalf by the union offi-cials was appreciated by all the mem-bers.”As part of the deal brokered to endthe dispute, both parties are commit-ted to meeting in the near future witha view to starting negotiations on anew agreement to address any po-tential future redundancy situationswhich may arise. Divisional Organiser Brendan O’Hanlon told Shopfloor: “It is impera-tive that, whatever agreement isreached following our discussions ishonoured in full and hopefully dis-putes such as this can be avoided inthe future. “Employers who believe they canexploit the current economic climateand play on the fears of workers needto take heed – unilateral changes toterms and conditions will not be tol-erated by our members and whenworkers are prepared to defend theirinterests, their union will ensure thatit uses all the resources available toprotect their interests. “We applaud the Wallis workersfor taking the stance they did andthank all those who showed theirsupport throughout the dispute.”

Striking Wallis workers accept enhanced redundancy proposals

INDUSTRIAL NEWS ‘When your employer breaks an agreement and then tries to force you to takemuch lesser terms, you’re left with no choice but to stand up for yourself...’

‘... it was extremely difficult to ask colleagues to take industrial action and lose their wages every week, so as we could get a fairerdeal, but I was amazed at the solidarity shown, they were brilliant’


Putting human rights front and centre

GENERAL NEWS

liver the human rights outlined inthe Democratic Programme. Theyhave even signed and ratified legallybinding international human rightstreaties that make it a legal, as wellas a moral, obligation to fulfil thepledges made to the Irish people in1919.Some might suggest those prom-ises are unrealistic, that the peoplecalling for them are not living in thereal world.It is patronising to sug-gest that people in this countrystruggling to keep a roof over theirheads or choosing between payingthe rent and taking a coughing childto the doctor are not living in thereal world.If we could contemplate socialand economic rights in the Irelandof a century ago, when our electedrepresentatives faced imprisonmentfor the pursuit of national inde-pendence, why not today? At a timewhen it is commonly understood

that a lack of transparent, effectiveand evidence-based decision-mak-ing, as well as poor systems of ad-ministration and oversight, led us tothis place of crisis, shouldn't theoverwhelming demand be that weradically change the system? right now, with the Constitu-tional Convention examining re-forms to Bunreacht na hÉireann, wehave a crucial opportunity to seekbetter protections for our humanrights.Throughout 2013 the Conventionhas been examining issues for pos-sible Constitutional reform chosenfor them by the Government. The 66ordinary people and 33 politicaldelegates are themselves nowchoosing the final items for discus-sion.This is an opportunity for us tolook at what our Constitutionmeans and what is important tohundreds of thousands of families

across Ireland. They are worriedabout how much money is left inthe bank account by the end of themonth and whether their childrenare getting the education they de-serve. Successive governments havemade their promises to this country.They have promised to fix thehealth service, improve educationstandards, get people back to work,ensure everyone has enough to liveon. This Government has promiseduniversal healthcare, based on neednot income, a basic part of the rightto health. But we have yet to seethese promises delivered.Who should get priority from thisGovernment, the banker or themother counting her change to payfor a GP visit? Whose need isgreater, the bondholder or the car-penter pawning his tools to pay theelectricity bill? The problem is that

when the Government has to choosebetween promises given to banksand election promises made to you,there’s no contest. The bankers win. Every time.We all have a right to health. Weall have a right to housing. We allhave a right to a decent living. These are fundamental humanrights that belong to us all, that nogovernment, no political party, noTroika can ever take away from you,but which are not properly pro-tected in Irish law.Putting our human rights frontand centre in our Constitution is acrucial step in ensuring future gov-ernments have to deliver theserights.Almost a hundred years fromwhen the people of Ireland werefirst promised these rights, it’s timewe set about making sure they weremade real. More info: www.amnesty.ie/constitution

‘Who should get priority from this Government, the banker or the mother counting her change to pay for a GP visit? Whose need is greater, the bondholder or the carpenter pawning his tools to pay the electricity bill?

BRASS TACKS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

By Colm O’GormanExecutive Director, Amnesty International Ireland“It shall be the first duty of the Gov-ernment of the Republic to makeprovision for the physical, mentaland spiritual well-being of the chil-dren, to secure that no child shallsuffer hunger or cold from lack offood, clothing, or shelter, but thatall shall be provided with themeans and facilities requisite fortheir proper education and train-ing...”THE language of the DemocraticProgramme of the First Dáil mightbe dated, but the principles it con-tains are not.It guarantees fundamentalhuman rights to everyone living inIreland – the right to a decent liv-ing, the right to health, to socialsecurity, to food. It even goes on tomake it an obligation of the Stateto guard the health of its people.Our history since then is litteredwith broken promises and emptypolitical pledges all the waythrough to today. Successive Irishgovernments have pledged to de-

MAnDAtE’s innovative Fair shopinitiative was launched recently inthe Rebel County.

Divisional organiser lorraineo’Brien, speaking at the launchevent, right, said: “In Cork city andcounty there are 16 Fair shops andwe are asking local consumers toshop with them because they re-spect their workers.

“By doing so, consumers aresupporting and promoting qualityemployment in the Irish retail sec-tor.”

she noted: “over recent years,there have been increasing as-saults on workers’ rights, pay andconditions of service by many un-scrupulous employers.

“this reality has been furtherfostered through the employer-

driven legal challenge to have theJoint labour Committees and theRegistered Employment Agree-ments deemed unconstitutional.”

general secretary John Douglas,left, also spoke at the event.

He told those gathered at thegresham Metropole Hotel:“In1913, thousands of workersfought for the right to collectivelybargain and for trade union recog-nition. For the vast majority ofworkers in Ireland, that ideal isstill an aspiration.

“However, what we can do to en-sure we continue the legacy ofthose involved in the lockout is tosupport retailers who allow theirworkers to avail of the basichuman right to be in a trade unionand to be represented for collec-tive bargaining.”

Fair Shop launched in Cork


PLATFORM SINN FEIN

By DavidCullinane

THE GOVErNMENT is clapping it-self on the back for exiting thebailout while it ignores the exit signover the door for young people. Sinn Fein used its Private Mem-bers time to bring forward propos-als on a Youth Guarantee scheme.The motion was voted down byFine Gael and Labour Deputies.This Government talks big butdelivers little for young people. In-deed the insulting and disparagingremarks about young people sittingat home watching “flat screen TV's”by Labour Deputies was galling asthey justified cutting the dole forthe under 25s.Our subservient Government hasbeen more than content to obey theausterity diktats of the Troika and,indeed, to go beyond them, by im-posing hardship on the old and theyoung, the sick and the vulnerable,those on the margins and thosestruggling to survive with inflatedmortgage debt and the rising cost ofliving. We have a shocking rate of unem-ployment – 30% – for people agedunder 35. And this does not includethose on training schemes. This is a huge indictment of the

failure of austerity but an evengreater indictment is the figure of105,000 young people aged between15 and 24 who have emigrated since2011. The figure for those aged 25 to44 who have emigrated since 2011 is112,000. I represent Waterford Cityand County which has the highest un-

employment rates in the state. Iknow intimately the devastationbeing caused to our communities bythe outflow of our young people. The lifeblood is literally beingdrained from communities through-out the length and breadth of thiscountry. This Government is clap-

Subservient Governmenthappy to outdo the Troika

ping itself on the back for the so-called exit from the bailout. But itprefers to ignore the ‘Exit’ sign overthe door as our young people leaveour country in droves every week. The mentality behind the slashingof Jobseekers Allowance for peopleunder 25 says it all about the regardthis Fine Gael/Labour government

has for our young people.Like many governments beforethem, as far as they are concerned –the more that leave, the better, be-cause it means less dole, less rentsupplement to be paid out andlower demand on health and educa-tion services.The Government par-ties will deny this vehemently. Theirwords will carry no weight. If they have real concern foryouth unemployment and youthemigration, they would immedi-ately implement the relatively mod-est measures called for in the SinnFein youth employment motion. Nothing less is acceptable.‘The lifeblood is being drained from communitiesthroughout the length and breadth of this country’

Course content: l Communications in today's modern world and how it influences youl Using social media (Facebook, Twitter). What is cyber bullying?l How to speak to people in authority that you meet in day to day lifel Public speaking (getting over your fears, building on your skills)l Taking advantage of internal promotional opportunities in your workplace (application forms, CV, interview techniques)

Date: Tuesday, 14th January 2014 Time: 6:30 - 9:00 pmVenue: Mandate's Training Centre, Distillery House,

Distillery Road, Dublin 3

Places limited to 20. To secure your place please phone the Training Centre @ 01-8369699 Please quote the reference code OTC 1-2014

Modern Communications & Personal Development

Dublin Airport: point of no return Picture: Sean MacEntee (CC BY 2.0)


PLATFORM LABOUR PARTY

NO IrISHMAN or woman will everforget where they were the day theyheard that our country’s sovereigntywas about to be handed over to theIMF/EU/ECB Troika. In 2010, just three short years ago,this State was in the eye of an eco-nomic and financial firestorm. It wasa fight for our very survival.The rescue of bust banks and thereckless mismanagement of an econ-omy based on speculation forced Ire-land into the clutches of the lender oflast resort. Fianna Fail had brought us to ournadir as a nation. The national humil-iation was complete. Three years in from the infamousbank guarantee, 250,000 more peo-ple had joined the dole queue. Publicservices witnessed unparalleled cuts.Social welfare recipients were in thefiring line. In February 2011, thepeople of Ireland made their judg-ment on Fianna Fáil at the ballot box.On our election to government, wepromised to get our country on trackagain. To restore our independence.To fix our broken economy. To createjobs. To give the dignity of work backto those who had been denied it. Toopen up Irish society. To make Ire-land a fairer place. In March of 2011, we might havegot a new government, but we cer-tainly didn’t get a new economy. The bad deal with the Troikawhich was foisted upon us by FiannaFáil was reopened and renegotiated. We had to fix the bust banks, theinstitutions on which businesses de-pend to create jobs. The gap betweenwhat we took in as a State and whatwe could spend had to be closed sowe could function again as a viableState, and we had to do so in as fairand equitable a manner as possible. The process of getting our countryback on its feet has been a long andhard process. The Irish people areonly too conscious of this. Labour is often open to criticismfor the decisions we have had to takein government. rarely is the questionasked – what would our governmentlook like without Labour at its heart?• Would the JLC/ErO system onwhich many Mandate members de-pend for fairness at work have beenrestored? No.• Would the National MinimumWage have been raised to pre-cut lev-els? Never.

• Would 330,000 of the lowest paidpeople in Ireland have been takenout of the USC net? No.• Would weekly social welfarerates have been protected? Not achance.• Would the €3 billion a yearPromissory Note payments havebeen torn up, and would Anglo Irishbank have been buried? No way.• Would we see legislation beingprepared on collective bargainingrights in the absence of Labour? Ab-solutely no way.Ireland is making huge progress.New jobs are being created at a rate

Making Ireland a fairer place

By GerardNash TD

‘Fianna Fail had brought us to our nadir as a nation. The national humiliation was complete’

Turning around the economy: new jobs are being created at a rate of 3,000 a month Picture: Unhindered by talent (CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Michael MeeganDivisional OrganiserMAnDAtE members at Deben-hams have accepted a proposaldocument by a large majority afterbeing balloted.

the proposals came out of a se-ries of discussions between theunion and management on a

range of issues. these discussionsincluded:

• Changes to Christmas bonus;• the incremental pay freeze; • the reduction in overtime

premium in place for the last twoto three years, followed by the 2%pay rise secured by the union

earlier this year. It is understood management

shared detailed information aboutthe firm’s current trading positionin Ireland at the meetings. the out-come of the discussions resulted inno change to the Christmas bonus,with the incremental pay freezeand reduction in overtime pre-

mium remaining as is. this will bereviewed along with pay again inJune 2014.

As part of the agreement, Man-date secured an additional twodays annual leave for all staff forthe 2014 holiday year as well as anincrease in staff discount for themonth of December.

Members at Debenhams vote for new proposalsINDUSTRIAL NEWS

of 3,000 per month. This has meantthat the jobless figures have reachedbelow 400,000 for the first time since1990. When we came into govern-ment, this figure was heading per-ilously close to 500,000. There are still far too many peoplesuffering the horror of unemploy-ment. There is a long way to go. Butwe are heading in the right direction.These levels of job creation haveensured that, for the third Budget ina row, social welfare weekly rateshave remained at the same levelsince 2011 – in the teeth of the worsteconomic crisis in the history of theState. On November 14, the Taoiseachand the Tánaiste announced that Ire-land will leave the Troika’s bailoutprogramme unaided. In mid-December, 36 months afterthat day of ignominy, we will regainthe right to allocate the resourcesavailable to us the way we, the Irishpeople, want them to be spent. Thisis no insignificant achievement. However, regaining our sover-eignty is worthless if we, as a repub-lic, don’t know what to do with it. The annual Labour Party confer-ence provides party members, sup-porters and our colleagues in thetrade unions an opportunity to re-flect on our period in government atthe half-way stage. More importantly, it gives us thechance to debate the future, to painta picture of what a post-crisis Irelandwill look like.In 1912, Labour was founded asthe party of work. The opportunity towork, to play a full role in the eco-nomic and social life of one’s countryis at the core of everything we do. Conference will focus on the goalof full employment; on fairness anddignity at work; on a new economynot based on speculation and graftbut on hard work, innovation, imagi-nation and skill.Simply fixing our broken economywould never be enough for Labour.We would never be content with thatalone. Creating a fair and more equalsociety on the foundations of a soundeconomy is our goal, and that is whatwe have set out to do.Ged Nash is a Labour TD for Louth. He isVice- Chair of the Parliamentary LabourParty and is Chair of the Labour Party’sPolicy Committee.

Lorraine O’Brien, Tesco, Carlow

Why I’m inMandate...

‘I joined Mandate tohelp people

who are being

unfairly treated’


Drawing strengthfrom our proud past

Gerry Light Assistant General SecretaryMandate Trade Union

VIEW SHOPFLOOR

RECEntly I attended a service of remembrance for all members ofthe global trade union family who have passed away. Obviously the event coming as it did during the commemoration of thecentenary of the 1913 Lockout held greater significance but, for me, it of-fered a brief opportunity to not only reflect on the varied contributionsmade by our deceased brothers and sisters through the ages but onceagain to fully realise the pivotal role played by the labour movement inshaping the quality of life that we enjoy and sometimes take for grantedhere in Ireland and around the world.One of the many fine contributors to the service was Joe Armstrongfrom the Humanist Association of Ireland who in citing the Universal Dec-laration of Human rights argued, correctly in my view, that this charterwould never have been enshrined in the UN declaration were it not for thetireless and selfless work of trade unionists here and abroad. In pondering this question for yourself it is appropriate that we high-light the principal aspirations contained in the Declaration:• A right to work, to just and favourable conditions and protectionagainst unemployment.• Without discrimination, a right to equal pay for equal work.• The right to just and favourable wages which allows the worker andhis or her family an existence worthy of human dignity supplemented ifnecessary by other means of social protection.• The right to form and join trade unions for the protection of their in-terests.• The right to rest and leisure, including limitations on working hoursand holidays with pay.• The right to a standard of living adequate for his or her health andwell being and that of his or her family, including food, clothing housingand medical care and necessary social services, as well as the right to se-curity in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, oldage or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his or her control.• Mothers and children are entitled to special care and assistance. Allchildren, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same socialprotection. For many workers some of these fine aspirations remain a distant hopewhile others who have benefited from their existence realise now morethan ever that the struggle to maintain these standards, not only in theworkplace but across society generally, is a constant struggle largely be-cause of the concerted attack deployed by right-wing ideologies many ofwhich based on recent experiences have admissibly failed us all with theexception of the ruling and wealthy classes.The most appropriate way we can effectively commemorate the ef-

forts of those from the trade union movement who have died, some di-rectly in the act of the labour struggle itself, is to double our individualand collective resolve to ensure that what they achieved was not invain. In the recent past our movement has beencastigated and presented as something thatdoes not belong in – or advance the causeof – modern civilisation. Nothing could be further from thetruth and if in doubt of this assertiontake a moment once again to read thecontents of the above Declaration andask yourself if it wasn’t for the tradeunion family, who else either now or in-deed in the past, would have championedand promoted such broad-minded and so-cially-just principles?

Let us draw strength and re-newed determination fromthe past and use it for thefurther advances and victo-ries that undoubtedly lieahead.

fromtheMaking Ireland a fairer place

IrISH charities are appealing for do-nations after Typhoon Haiyan report-edly killed more than 5,000 people inthe Philippines. Plan Ireland estimates around fourmillion people have been affected byone of the most powerful storms everrecorded.Meanwhile, the Irish red Cross hassaid that almost one million peoplehave been temporarily sheltered in

353 evacuation centres after the ty-phoon. And Irish developmentagency Trócaire has committedemergency support to its partnersworking in the Philippines.Anyone wishing to donate to theIrish Red Cross can do so online atwww.redcross.ie or by phone, at1850 50 70 70. Meanwhile, the aidagency GOAL has dispatched anemergency response team to the

Philippine island of Leyte. The publiccan support GOAL's appeal by tele-phoning goAl on 01 280 9779 orvisiting www.goal.ie;Donations to the children's charity,Plan Ireland, can be made online atwww.plan.ie or by calling 1800 829829. For more information on donatingto trocaire, visit the website atwww.trocaire.org/donate.

Filipinos wait in line for evacuation by air from Tacloban airfield Picture: Commander US 7th Fleet (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Tacloban bore the brunt of the super-storm Picture: Australian Aid photo library (CC BY 2.0)

Dig deep to help Typhoon Haiyan victims

INTERNATIONAL THE PHILIPPINES


INTERNATIONAL WALMART

By Michael T BrideUFCW International UnionIT WILL not surprise those who fol-low the debates around austerity toknow that there is a push for work-ers to get paid more, and not just fortheir sake but for the sake of theeconomy. If regular workers got a higherwage, goes the theory, then theywould spend the additional incomein the local economy as the option ofutilising a Cayman Island tax shelteris rarely a luxury that a regularworker can avail of. This will be familiar to people whohave followed the austerity debate inIreland, but it is a debate which isalso happening beyond Irish shores.The income disparity between thetop 1% and the bottom 99% was fa-mously highlighted by the Occupymovement. But this is more than aslogan – it is an economic and socialcrisis which must be fixed in order toenable the economy to work for themajority again, or at least to the ex-tent that it ever did.In the USA, the gap between richand poor is greater than at any timein history since 1929. The top 1% ofAmericans have 40% of the nation’swealth, whereas the bottom 80%only have 7% of the country’s wealthbetween them. The richest 1% of America take

home 24% of the national incometoday; in 1976, they took homeonly 9%. And the top 1% ownhalf the country’s stock, bondsand mutual funds, compared tothe bottom 50% of Americanswho own a paltry 0.5%.Pulitzer Prize-winning eco-nomic journalist David Cay John-ston conducted an exhaustivestudy on the development of in-come disparity over the past 50years and found that in Amer-ica incomes for the bottom90% of Americans grew by amere $59 on average (ad-justed for inflation),whereas the average in-come for the top 10% ofAmericans rose by$116,071 by comparison.It is against this back-drop that there are callsfor an increase to the min-imum wage. The inabilityof regular workers to getby in today’s economy,coupled with theknowledge of thewealth that is present inthe economy but made inaccessi-ble to them, is what drives manyworkers in industries such as fastfood and retail to demand better. Perhaps the best manifestation oframpant capitalism gone wrong is

HANDOUTS FORTHANKSGIVING

EndLockoutof youngpeoplePAGE 23

19December 2013 y SHOPFLOOR

INTERNATIONAL WALMART

the Walmart business model and all itentails; luckily, it is also the site ofone of the most notable fight-backs.Walmart, as the world’s largest re-tailer by far, boasts more than 11,000stores in 29 countries, employs 2.2million staff and grossed $466 billionin earnings in financial year 2013. However, an equally outlandish sta-tistic is that its soon-to-retire CEO,Mike Duke, will benefit from a retire-ment package 6,200 times higherthan that of the average Walmartworker. Add to this that the six members ofthe Walton family who inherited thecompany have a net worth equivalentto the bottom 42% of all Americans,and the level of inequality in the Wal-mart world becomes even clearer.Of course, Walmart contends that itdoes pay fairly; that its pay rates areindicative of the market but thatworkers can raise a family on whatthey earn working for the com-pany. This contention was throwninto some disrepute recentlywhen a picture emerged fromthe employee-only section ofa Walmart in Canton, Ohio,detailing a table upon whichwas placed numerous foodbins and a sign which read“Please donate food itemshere so Associates in Need

can enjoy Thanksgiving”. Let’s be clear – this was not Wal-mart the company offering to donatefood to its workers. rather, this wasWalmart providing a mechanismwhereby its workers could donatefood to other workers so that theywould not be hungry through theThanksgiving holidays. Walmart continually states that itprovides a benefit to poor people byselling cheap food. Upon seeing thispicture, one can’t but wonderwhether the only poor people whocan’t afford to shop at Walmart arethose employed by the company?Walmart workers have been fight-ing back. They banded together tofound Organization United for re-spect at Walmart, or OUrWalmart forshort. The day following Thanksgiving inthe USA is known as “Black Friday”,and is the busiest shopping day of theyear. On this day in 2012, for the firsttime ever, Walmart workers engagedin a series of work stoppages and ac-tions which ultimately impacted morethan 1,000 stores. These actionsdrove unprecedented media coverageabout the lot of retail workers and thetwo-tier economy in America. Following on from this, Walmartworkers escalated their actionsthroughout the year, culminating in

what they called a “ride for respect”where Walmart workers went onstrike and travelled from the four cor-ners of the USA to Walmart’s head of-fice in Bentonville, Arkansas, whereon June 3, 2013, they held a rally.Following this action, a number ofthe Walmart strikers were disciplinedand sacked. Their organisation, OUr-Walmart, took exception to this andchallenged the workers’ dismissalsunder US federal law. On November 18, 2013, and just intime for Black Friday, the governmentagency which oversees labour lawstated that it found merit in some ofthe charges filed against Wal-Mart, in-cluding allegations that stores in 13states unlawfully threatened, disci-plined or terminated employees forparticipating in legally-protectedstrikes and protests. Noted academic John Logan, profes-sor of labor and employee studies atSan Francisco State University, saidthat the ruling is hugely important,adding “it really basically said thatthere is very compelling evidence thatWal-Mart had significant violations ofthe law.”This ruling may provide a spring-board for the way of protests set toengulf the retailer again on Black Fri-day this year. And Walmart workersin the USA are being supported byWalmart workers the world over, in-

cluding in Canada, Brazil, Argentina,Chile, South Africa, Zambia, Japan,India and the Uk. These Walmart workers in othercountries are taking such actions aspart of the UNI Global Union WalmartWorkers Alliance, which is a consor-tium of worker representative organi-sations under the umbrella of theglobal union federation of which Man-date is a member.The support that US Walmart work-ers are getting is indicative of the im-plications of their fight. David CayJohnstone, cited earlier in this article,stated, “This is a fight that, if it is lost,will be devastating to all theunionised grocery workers in Amer-ica – it will drive down their wages”. It is self-evidently true that theseworkers are fighting for workerseverywhere. What has also been said,given the scale of the company, is thatif we can change Walmart, we canchange America. The workers’ rights and economicjustice movements have been fightingfor change for decades, but it is hardto imagine a more vital time for vic-tory to arrive.To learn more about the struggle for respect at Walmart, go to www.forrespect.org. Michael T Bride is Deputy Organizing Direc-tor for Global Strategies UFCW Interna-tional Union

‘Let’s be clear – thiswas not Walmart thecompany offering todonate food to itsworkers. Rather, thiswas Walmart providinga mechanism wherebyits workers could donate food to otherworkers so that they would not be hungry through theThanksgiving holidays’

HANDOUTS FORTHANKSGIVING

Walmart employees took theirgrievance to the Walmart HQin Bentonville, Arkansas in2011 Picture: OurWalmart

Strikers outside a Walmartstore in Seattle last NovemberPicture: UFCW (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Hard to stomach: sign asking workersto donate food so colleagues couldenjoy a decent Thanksgiving meal


STATESIDE VIEWS

from civil society or the generalpublic is remarkably muted. Take Switzerland by way of con-trast. They have just had a referen-dum, as part of their system ofdirect democracy, on a proposal tolimit the monthly pay of the highestearners in Swiss firms to that of theyearly pay of the lowest earners. The referendum was lost, but a re-markable 35% of those who votedsupported the proposal.An earlier referendum on a pro-posal to limit executive salaries incompanies on the Swiss stock mar-ket was successful with 67% sup-port. This will result in legal provisionsto give shareholders a bindingpower of veto over the salaries ofmanagers and board members; andto outlaw golden handshakes tomanagers for joining or leaving acompany and bonus payments to ex-ecutives involved in mergers or ac-quisitions. We are a long way from achievingsuch an outcome. We are a long wayfrom that type of democracy too.Our debates on income equalityhave tended to focus on low incomesor on issues of redistribution. Theseare important, but there is a need toalso focus on high incomes. It is as ifwe somehow feel high incomes arehigh because they are deserved. Noone deserves the high incomes thatare available in Ireland.

INCrEASED life expectancy. Betterlevels of educational attainment.Greater social mobility. Less obe-sity. Lower rates of imprisonment.Less violence. More trust. Bettermental health. The list is extensiveand goes further. These are allgoals that most of our politiciansreadily aspire to. research has shown that theseare among the characteristics ofsocieties that have achievedgreater levels of income equality.That is a goal that few of our politi-cians seem to aspire to.We do have the minimum wage,just about. We do have effectiveforms of redistribution throughtaxation, public services and socialwelfare. We also have growing levels ofincome equality and deprivation.The highest earning 20% in oursociety earned 4.9 times what thelowest 20% got in 2011. This is upfrom 4.3 times in 2009. Poverty and deprivation are in-creasing. The deprivation rate hasmore than doubled from 11.8% in2007 to 24.5% in 2011. There islittle evidence of any aspirationstowards equality in these figures.This is not just an Irish phenom-enon. Globally the incomes of thetop 1% of earners have increasedby 60% in 20 years. The growth in income of the top0.1% is even greater. In the US theshare of national income going tothe top 1% has doubled since1980, from 10% to 20%. In Chinathe top 10% now take home nearly60% of the income.This is not just a phenomenon ofthe good times. The process hasaccelerated since the onset of thecrisis with the top 1% further in-creasing their share of total in-come. The luxury goods markethas registered double-digit growthevery year since the crisis hit.Politics at home and abroad arefailing us. The demand for equality

We do need a debate about highincomes, at what point ‘enough’ isreached, and how high incomescould be curbed.We could do salary caps. Thiswas set up for the banking worldand for Government advisors. Slip-page was the order of the day asthe limits were breached time andagain. We could do some form of ratiolike the Swiss proposal. This is noteven on the policy horizon. Wecould tax any earnings beyond an‘enough’ limit at 100%. There havebeen some policy proposals for anew tax level for the super rich butwithout real political traction.Claiming Our Future is cam-paigning on this issue of incomeequality and of high incomes.There are a lot more organisationswith similar concerns. The trade unions have been keyplayers in this. The various eco-nomic think tanks have done workon these issues. NGOs such as theNational Women’s Council of Ire-land have already raised issues ofincome inequality, including interms of the 17.1% gender pay gapin Ireland. We need to coordinate and de-velop more effective action on thisissue if popular support is to bedeveloped to a point where politi-cal will for change might begin toemerge.

Focus on pay

By NiallCrowleyClaiming Our Future

MAINTAINING membership densitylevels is as much of a problem State-side as it is here. In 2010, the totalpercentage of workers belonging to aunion in the US was 11.4% yet thosewho do pay their subs earn between10% and 30% more than their non-union colleagues.So why are unions finding it hardto recruit when it obviously pays tobe in a union?LiUNA President Terry O’Sullivanthinks the reason union density lev-els are falling is because the legisla-tive decks are stacked againstAmerican unions. “A lot of peoplethink we have pro-worker labourlaws in the US. In fact, we have pro-employer labour laws.”A “significantly high” percentage ofworkers, if given a choice, will join aunion, he insists, but “when employ-ers can intimidate and thwart one’sability to decide to join a union, youhave unionisation rates like we havein the US.”Dan kane, who is InternationalVice President (Eastern region) atthe Teamsters, agrees and points to“really deplorable” rates that areunder 7% in the private sector.“When you put public and private to-

gether, it’s an aggregate of about10%,” he adds. The picture variesacross the US with union member-ship rates higher on the eastern andwestern seaboards and in the majorcities. And for several years, unions havebeen battling aggressive and well-funded, anti-union drives at statelevel. These so-called ‘right-towork’campaigns – in labour heartlandssuch as Michigan, Wisconsin andOhio – are being bank-rolled by bigbusiness interests. Their purpose issimple: to frustrate workplace organ-ising as well as crippling union fi-nances.According to LiUNA, employees inright-to-work states make an averageof €5,300 less than other Americanworkers. Workplace death rates arealso 36% higher in right-to-workstates. Dan jokes: “We call it ‘right towork for less’!”Terry says: “Particularly with theTea Party, what you see is right-to-work battles at state level, collectivebargaining battles at state level, pre-vailing wage battles at the state level.We’re fighting on all fronts [but] withmore money being put in by the op-position.”Dan adds: “[They are

Statesof theunionsEconomist Joseph Stiglitz recently pointed to the role decliningunion membership rates have played in the ever-widening gulfbetween rich and poor in the US. He wrote: “Strong unions havehelped reduce inequality, whereas weaker unions have made iteasier for CEOs, sometimes working with market forces that theyhave helped shape, to increase it.” You don’t have to be a Nobelprize winner – like Stiglitz – to know this is as true in Ireland as itis in America. Last month, a delegation of US trade unionists visited Ireland to mark the centenary of the 1913 Lockout as wellas to meet with union activists, politicians and workers to sharetheir experiences of fighting austerity. Shopfloor spoke to twomembers of the delegation, Terry O’Sullivan of labourers’ unionLiUNA andDan Kane of the Teamsters...

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STATESIDE VIEWS

Statesof theunions

spending] enormous sums of money– just to keep us spending money andchip away at the state level until theycan do it again at the Federal level.”And Terry points out that onceright-to-work legislation is passed atstate level, union density levels dropeven further. “People stop payingdues because they don’t have to.When you take your money out ofthe union, the union is still legally ob-ligated to represent you.”Dan agrees: “There is a lot of incen-tive for people to say to you, ‘I get thesame thing as the guy who does payfor it’.”But despite deploying massive fi-nancial resources, republicans werestill unable to defeat PresidentObama last year. Can unions drawcomfort from the fact that the GOP ison the wrong side of a demographicshift in the US, with a growing Latinopopulation that tends to vote solidlyDemocrat?Terry thinks there is what the calls“a bunch of dynamics” going on andthough he doesn’t disagree with thepremise, points out that in his experi-ence “it’s hard to tell a Democratfrom a moderate republican”. “[But] it’s easy to tell anybody and

LiUNA has not accepted managed decline as a givenand has funnelled valuable resources towards what itregards as two key areas – organising and politics.Terry says: “The perception of the labour move-

ment is not necessarily a good one. For no other rea-son than in many instances we don’t promoteourselves – which takes money. Does that take awayfrom organising? Does that take away from your po-litical activities? As our membership has declined, wehave [had] fewer resources [to deploy].” At its 2006 convention, LiUNA delegates took a

bold move to address this problem and garner morefunds for the fight. Delegates voted for 25 cents to gotowards organising for every hour worked. At the

time, LiUNA members worked 400 million hours ayear, so the move had the potential of generating aprincely $106m per annum for the purpose.Terry explains: “Our work hours are down because

the economy is down but we’re generating about$80m a year [for organising] from those 25 cents.” But there are still complicating factors, he admits:

“We have seen some of the fruits of our labour [but]organising takes time as the laws in our country theystack up against us not for us.”In another move, LiUNA’s 2011 convention passed a

further levy of five cents for every hour worked – thistime to go towards a political fund which generatesanother $14m a year.

everybody from the crazy ass TeaParty! And I believe at the end of theday, the Tea Party potentially can domore damage to the republicansthan the rest of us could ever do tothe republican party as a brand.”A key battleground for manyunions is comprehensive immigra-tion reform. This Senate Bill – seek-ing to bring in an “earned path to UScitizenship” – is being bitterly con-tested by the Tea Party fringe in the

republican party. Terry, whose forebears hail fromkerry and Tipperary, points out thatLiUNA was founded by immigrantsmore than a century ago.He says: “If we get them to passcomprehensive immigration reformwith a path to citizenship – we haveover 11 million undocumented immi-grant workers in the US – it’s a gamechanger! This is why the House ofrepresentatives is dragging their feet

[on the issue] and the [republican]party just doesn’t want to see it hap-pen because if we’re given the oppor-tunity to engage and interact with 11million immigrant workers, you’regoing to see the needle going in a dif-ferent direction for the labour move-ment – and for the Democratic Party.”Terry insists that immigration re-form is “personal for us… it is whowe are, it is what we are” and de-scribes it as LiUNA’s “number onelegislative priority”.“We were founded by a group ofimmigrant workers who were tiredof the abuse and the exploitationthey were confronted with. “Our union was founded by Irish,Italians, Germans, eastern Europeansand African Americans – minorityworkers that all came together to bein a union that nobody else wanted.” Immigrants, he continues, are“looking to be treated fairly, justlyand have the same rights and protec-tions as every other worker. Forgetabout the politics of the thing, it’s theright thing to do.”Dan, a proud member of theFriendly Sons of the Shillelagh whosefamily came from Derry, concurs:“Look these [immigrants] are basi-cally going to be working class De-mocrats as opposed to ‘lace curtain’Democrats. When they become citi-zens, their income and their status inlife, they are going to be what weconsider the old-fashioned Democ-rat.”Terry outlines how the construc-

tion industry, which used to be theoccupation of choice for young peo-ple who did not intend going to col-lege, was no longer seen as anattractive option because employershave been able to drive down wagesto “damn near minimum wage”.In the US, undocumented immi-grants tend to get the blame for this,but Terry begs to differ. “It’s not un-documented immigrants, it’s the em-ployers [who are to blame]! It was atrade, people fought to get in. When Iwas young in San Francisco, you ei-ther became a cop, a firefighter oryou went into the trades. “You aspired to do that but becauseof what we’ve gone through over thelast 30 years, they’ve driven wagesdown in San Francisco, New YorkCity, and a lot of places.”Observers from outside the USoften scratch their heads and wonderwhy so many American workersseem to vote against their economicand class interests during elections.Terry suggests that for his union,construction jobs are “by their naturetemporary” and when union densitylevels fall because work is scare, “youdo start losing your influence.”“You can’t have single digit uniondensity and expect to have any abilityto influence your members when itcomes to elections or anything else.”Dan’s view is that low union den-sity is a symptom of the continuingevisceration of America’s core indus-tries – those jobs, he quips, that “Cor-porate America has not figured outhow to export or do away with”.And he adds: “It is beyond a per-sonal choice [about whether to join aunion or not]. Low density is causedby manufacturing going overseas.That has been forgotten because wehave been living with it for so long –this deregulation of major industries,airlines, communications, trucking.”As to the future, Terry thinks it isessential that the trade union brandis “rebuilt” in the US.He says: “The long and the short ofit is this: we need to reinvent our-selves so we become relevant again,so we show up on people’s radars asa viable alternative to young men andwomen. I think we need to build thisthing from the ground up again.”Interview by Joe Mitchell

Immigration reform is potentiallya ‘game changer’ for US unions

Picture: LiUNA

Despite falling density levels, unions are pullingout the stops to keep thelabour fire lit Stateside

Picture: AFSCME

Pointed message: TerryO’Sullivan of LiUNAPicture: Sinn Fein (CC BY 2.0)

Teamsters’Dan Kane Picture: SF (CC BY 2.0)

Organising and politics are key to our future...

22 SHOPFLOOR y December 201322

GENERAL NEWS

First all-Ireland ICTU youthconference held in DublinMOrE than 60 young trade unionistsattended the first Irish Congress ofTrade Union’s all-Ireland youth con-ference on November 16 and 17. The event was hosted and sup-ported by Mandate, CWU and theIBOA.The objective of the conferencewas to hear directly from youngworkers about the issues affectingthem today and to educate them on arange of issues such as austerity, po-litical economy, emigration, precari-ous work, workers’ rights andunemployment.Derek keenan, who is Chair ofICTU Youth, said it was importantthat so many young people attendedthe event as Irish society faced up toa crisis for young people and a crisisof young members in the trade unionmovement.He told the conference: “Youngpeople are bearing the brunt of theeconomic and social crisis in Ireland.It is clear that a coordinated fight-back is needed and what we wantedto do is find out what’s happening onthe ground and feed that into theleaders of the trade unions in Ireland.We can no longer allow our issues totake a back seat within the tradeunion movement.”Precarious and insecure work, em-igration, low-hour contracts, attackson social welfare rates and manyother issues affecting young peoplewere discussed at the event. David Gibney, from Mandate Youth,said: “Young people are not part ofthe problem, they’re part of the solu-tion and the trade union movementneeds to embrace that fact. For toolong now, young people have hadtheir voices hushed and haven’t had afair say in how their society is run.

“The trade union movement offersyoung workers the opportunity toengage in important debates abouttheir own future and this conferencewas a conduit for that.”Congress President and MandateGeneral Secretary John Douglas, whoattended the event, had a strong mes-sage for young workers.He told them: "The best thing youcan do is get active. Get out there andtalk to people. Tell them how it is andspeak from the heart. You don't haveto understand GDP or inflation ratesto know when something is simplywrong. “So make sure you first of all mo-bilise and get active in your union‘Make sure you first of all mobiliseand get active in your union and thenget active in your society’

and then get active in your society.Change will only happen if we makeit happen."Also attending the conferencewere many experts and internationalspeakers including Dr Conor McCabe,UCD School of Justice; Dr John Barry,QUB School of Politics; ChristopherCutajar, Secretary Maltese GeneralWorkers Union; Cesc Blanco, Coordi-nadora Obrera Sindical (COS),Catalunya; Elenore Perrin Massebi-aux, Trademark Belfast; PaulMcFlynn, NErI Institute; and MoiraMurphy from the We’re Not Leavingcampaign.Mr Gibney supported Mr Douglas’scalls for young people to get involved.He told Shopfloor: “Mandate is ayoung trade union by comparisonwith others around the country.However, sometimes it’s difficult foryoung people to have their voicesheard. “That’s why Mandate Youth is agreat opportunity for young workersunder the age of 35 to get involvedand gain some trade union experi-ence. “In the coming months, MandateYouth will be organising trainingevents for young workers and we’reencouraging all young members toparticipate.”If you’d like to get involved in Man-date Youth or find out more, [email protected]

23December 2013 y SHOPFLOOR

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BRASS TACKS

By Shane FitzgeraldWe’re Not LeavingACrOSS Ireland a generational gulf is form-ing. Years on from the bank guarantee andthe imposition of austerity, we now live in ananti-democratic society that locks youngpeople out from basic social protections andthe decision-making processes that impacton our lives and futures. The result is common negative experi-ences – such as fee hikes and grant cuts,youth unemployment, forced emigration, es-calating mental health crises, internship cul-ture, lack of affordable housing, precariousand unpaid work – being aggressivelyfoisted on us but not caused by us. We won’t accept this ‘new normal’ of in-creasing impoverishment or be their ‘safety-release valve’ through forced emigration. Young people and workers played no partin creating this crisis of the wealthy, the cor-rupt and the powerful – and we will not tol-erate these attacks on our present andfutures to pay for it.This is a call out to any young person whofeels ready to take that step into getting or-ganised with their generation to fight backagainst all the crap, against all the corrup-tion, against all their attacks on our lives.On November 9 at the Young People’s As-sembly in Liberty Hall, the largest andbroadest gathering of young people sincethe crisis began – for the first time bringingtogether students, young trade unionists, theunemployed and their representative organ-isations – started work on a common char-ter and strategies to get organised and fightback. The organisers and members of Mandateand ICTU Youth Committee played a leadingrole.Facilitated by the national We’re Not Leav-ing campaign, the Young People’s Assemblycollectively produced the following:Precarious work and internship cultureWe demand: 1. That companies be barredfrom displacing current paid workers withinternship positions. 2. That a day’s workshould equal a day’s pay – a living wage. 3.An end to the institutional normalisation ofinternship culture and the commencementof independent monitoring of internshipschemes. 4. Stability and security in theworkplace in terms of hours, income and lo-cation. 5. That the concept of “experience”should not replace paid work.Mental HealthWe demand: 1. Universal access to free,local and high-quality public mental healthservices. 2. A collective and social approachto the de-stigmatisation of mental health is-sues and that positive mental health be pro-moted in the community, workplace andeducation system. 3. recognition of the im-pact of precarious work, internship culture,unemployment and poverty on the mentalheath of young people in Ireland.Youth unemployment and forced emigrationWe demand: 1. That young people whohave been forced to emigrate must have theright to vote in elections in Ireland. 2. An end

End the Lockoutof young people

End thesiege of CubaPAGE 28/29

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to the recruitment embargo within the pub-lic sector. 3. The recognition of our status asadults in society. 4. That our trade unions berecognised and be allowed to collectivelybargain on our behalf. 5. real job creationfrom the government instead of tokenmeasures.HousingWe demand: 1. That quality, accessiblehousing be recognised as a universal socialright – free from discrimination based ongender, sexual orientation, age and/or eth-nicity – and that this right is guaranteed bythe state. 2. Strong regulation of landlordsand developers in order to control housingcosts and ensure access to adequate hous-ing. 3. That the state utilise the existing so-cial-housing stock, as well as propertiesbelonging to NAMA and the bailed-outbanks, in the interest of the public.Fee hikes and grant cutsWe demand: 1. A third-level educationsystem that is truly free at the first point ofentry that is funded by a system of progres-

sive taxation. 2. A grant system be put inplace for all stages of further and higher ed-ucation, which enables access to educationfor everyone in society and reflects the costof living. 3. The recognition of the broadernon-economic benefits of education, as wellas the recognition of the economic and so-cial role that the students of today will playin the society of tomorrow. 4. Solidarity be-tween all student representative bodies andthe encouragement of political learning andengagement at all levels of education.This opening draft will be further devel-oped in the coming weeks and months, butwe hope this inclusive charter by and foryoung people will help us to finally come to-gether in solidarity to organise and fight foran alternative Ireland for young people – tocampaign for a profoundly different visionof social justice for this society. Get intouch(see below) if you want to get in-volved.We’re students, the young unemployed,precarious workers and mixes of all three –we’re angry and #werenotleaving. Check out:[email protected];twitter.com/WNLIreland;facebook.com/werenotleaving


BLOW THE WHISTLEON THE BAD BOSSES

10MANDATE1. An organising and campaigning union: Mandate is focused on building an activist base to protect and improve employment conditions. Through better organised workplaces and the power of the collective strength, we will deliverjustice for working people.

2. Modern and effective training:Mandate provides free courses to help you learn new skills, improve existing skills and develop you and your prospective career. We negotiate agreements with employers to pay for attendance at courses and also to provide reasonable time off foremployees to attend them.

3. Campaigning for success:Mandate is a progressive campaigning union fighting on issuesthat really matter to our members, their families and society in general. Mandate campaigns challenge social injustice at all levelsof Irish society.

4. Protection at work:Highly trained and skilled Mandate officials provide professionaladvice and assistance, where appropriate, on a variety of employment issues.

5. Safety at work: Mandate health & safety representatives are trained to minimisethe risk of workplace injuries and ensure that employers meet theirlegal obligations at all times.

6. Better pay:Year on year, Mandate campaigns for and wins pay rises for itsmembers. Mandate also campaigns to close the widening genderpay gap in Irish society.

7. Legal protection:Mandate has won significant legal compensation for members whoare injured as a result of an accident at work.

8. Mandatory pensions:Mandate has secured pension schemes with a variety of retail employers and will campaign to secure mandatory pensionschemes for all members working in the private sector, partcularlythose on low wages.

9.You’re less likely to be discriminated against:Mandate has won agreements with employers on respect and dignity at work policies and procedures. Mandate will continue tocampaign for tougher laws to make it illegal to discriminate on thebasis of sex, race, age, disability or sexual orientation.

10. You’re less likely to be sacked:Membership of Mandate protects you and strengthens your voice in your workplace.

Together we’re stronger

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JOIN MANDATE TRADE UNION ONLINE AT http://www.mandate.ie/Contact/Join.aspx

MUSIC Q&A POL McADAIMCOMMENT

By John DouglasMandate General SecretaryYOU might have heard that theTroika are leaving Ireland on Decem-ber 15 satisfied that manners havebeen put on the Irish Governmentand the Irish people. Ireland no doubt will be held up asa glowing example of the success ofthe Troika programmes and its harshmedicine dished out, the patient theworld will be told is on the road torecovery. The Irish Government is alreadybathing in the glory of this turn-around from basket case to showcase. You will hear it pronounced thatwe have regained our “financial sov-ereignty”, that our future destiny isnow once again in our hands, that thesacrifices although harsh were worthit and that we can start rebuilding.Well, what a load of complete andutter rubbish. Yes, farewell to theTroika, but it will continue to moni-tor us every six months to ensurethat we do no slip back off the path ofcontinued austerity, that we continueto repay the bank bailouts, that wecontinue to cut public spending onhealth and services and that we con-tinue to condemn future generationsto shoulder the burden of massiveunsustainable bank debt. The Troika has done its job anddone it well – it has Ireland and thepeople of Ireland locked into perma-nent austerity.And what of the trail of destruction

that it has left in its wake? What ofthe social consequences of its poli-cies? Policies which were designed tosave bond holders and financial insti-tutions. What of the 400,000 workerslocked out of jobs, the 50,000 emi-grating each year, the 100,000 mort-gage holders in arrears and in dangerof losing their homes? What of the

young workers under 26 years of agewho saw their dole paymentsslashed, the hospitals and schoolsthat will never be built? While part of the initial crisis wascaused by the greed of the bankingelite and speculators of Ireland andtheir cheer leaders, the policies im-posed by the Troika targeted ordi-nary workers and citizens who hadno hand or act to play in the crash.If there is one positive side to thedeparture of the Troika, it is that theIrish Government will have to take

Bye Bye Troika

‘The Troika has doneits job and done itwell, it has Irelandand the people ofIreland locked intopermanent austerity’

full responsibility for all future policydecisions, no longer will it be able toblame the Troika.And what of the €64 billion (€32billion Anglo Irish) of banking debtthe Irish people has had to shoulder?Every single euro will be repaid andthe banks will eventually be “soldoff” to the private sector with clearbalance sheets in the hope that we astaxpayers and citizens can recoupsome our money. And, dare we say it,no banker jailed, no fine imposed?Contrast this, if you will, with theUS, Lehman Brothers Bank was al-lowed to fail as were other delin-quent institutions, senior bankerswere jailed and heavy fines and set-tlements were extracted from banksfor their misbehaviour – for exampleJP Morgan Chase, the biggest bank inthe US has been forced to pay the USGovernment more than $20 billiondollars in fines and settlements. While at the same time in Europe,we cannot even reach an agreementto put a small financial transactiontax on financial institutions so thatthey might contribute to the repair ofthe damage they caused.Be in no doubt, the austeritybrigade has not gone away, the seniorbankers and speculators are seekingto cleanse themselves of accountabil-ity and responsibility through insol-vency here and abroad, readyingthemselves for a rebirth of their fi-nancial empires as if nothing hap-pened.You have been warned!

Graphic: UNI Global


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Communication through ComputersThis course is ideal for adults just learning about computers and confidence for communicating online.

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Adult Education Courses for the WorkplaceMandate Trade Union with the VEC network is offering a programme of Training Courses called Skills for Work. Skills for Work offers members the opportunity to get back into educationat their own pace with a wide range of courses to choose from. Each course has 6 – 8 participants and may be held locally and outside of working hours. Some of the courses include:

Courses are free and open to members who have not achieved Leaving Certificate or who have an out of date Leaving Certificate. You can also achieve a FETAC Level 3 Award. Skills for Work is funded by the Department of Education & Skills

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FROM WHERE I STAND...

employment and formed part of thejustificatory spin employed to ex-plain why it was necessary to cutthe rate of Jobseekers Allowanceapplicable to those under 26. This,the Government argued, would en-courage young people to get “off thecouch” and get back into work, edu-

cation or training. The message from the Governmentwas clear, if you were unemployedand not engaged in any of the above,it was because you were staying onthe dole as a lifestyle choice. Whatmade this assertion particularlygalling was the fact that few in gov-

‘What actuallymade this assertion particularlygalling was thefact that few in governmentactually believedthat this was true’

Putting record straight over‘layabout’ slur on our youth...

ernment actually believed that thiswas true. They knew well that it waspatently untrue.They knew well that before theeconomic crisis Ireland enjoyed oneof the highest youth employmentrates across the Eurozone.They knew well that there were 32

unemployed people for every onejob vacancy and they were acutelyaware that there was nowhere nearsufficient a quantity of relevanttraining or education places for theunemployed to avail of. Furthermore, by acting as an un-official recruitment agent for inter-national employers, theGovernment implicitly recognisedthat, despite the rhetoric, they hadnothing to offer young people andyet they still cut their dole. The Government showed thatthey may have been bereft of ideasbut certainly not of scapegoats. Un-fortunately politics in Ireland hasalways been a cynical game and awhole generation of young peopleare now learning that the hard way.

Voice of youth:November 9Dail protest

By Derek KeenanChair, CWU & ICTU Youth CommitteeON November 9 the youth commit-tees of the CWU, Mandate and theTEEU held a protest outside the gatesof the Dail in order to draw attentionto the fact that the Department of So-cial Protection had sent correspon-dence to unemployed workersrelating to job opportunities abroad.Innocuous enough some might say,but when one considers the letterswithin the context of the recentbudgetary decisions taken by theGovernment, a far more insidiouspicture begins to emerge. In the weeks leading up to thebudget it was clear that young peoplewere going to be in the firing line.The kite-flying had begun early andthe ideologically groundwork pre-pared, as the Government sought tojustify an attack on those who had nohand act or part in creating the cur-rent economic mess. But someone needed to be blamedfor the stubbornly high rate of youthunemployment and political expedi-ence on the part of the Governmentdictated that blame was to be placedsolely at the door of the unemployedthemselves. Unemployment was de-politicised,presented as an individual problemand not a structural problem Ouryoung were vilified, crudely depictedas layabouts who couldn’t be draggedaway from their flat-screen TVs forlong enough to notice the line of em-ployers who were beating at theirdoors offering them jobs.Incentivisation became the newbuzzword in debates about youth un-


THE BIG IDEA...

Why unemployment isnecessary(under capitalism, that is...)By Ed TellerTHErE IS very little point in talk-ing about what capitalism shouldbe, or what we wish it to be, andkidding ourselves into believing itcan provide something that itcan’t. Of far more value to the tradeunion movement is an analysis ofwhat capitalism actually is, of re-ally existing capitalism.Capitalism has never provided(with the exception of Nazi Ger-many), and will never provide, fullemployment, or anything close toit. Unemployment is a necessityunder capitalism; and here’s why.Wages and profits are inverselyrelated: when wages go up, profitstend to be reduced. Employerstherefore want to reduce as muchas possible the cost of wages. High

unemployment disciplines workersand their unions and reduces the de-mand for wage increases, as workersare forced into negative competitionwith the unemployed. As businesseshave become larger and global, thiscompetition is now global, and work-ers are pitted against workers on theother side of the globe, reducinglabour costs to secure profits.Employers also invest in new ma-chinery and technology to reducetheir cost of production; and far frommaking workers’ lives easier, thesenew innovations replace workers, asemployers again seek to reduce theirlabour costs and mechanise theirproduction process.This is the traditional explanationfor unemployment in commodity-production capitalism. But thingshave developed; and, as capitalists

seek to make profits from credit andasset appreciation, making moneyfrom money and skipping the pro-duction process altogether, unem-ployment has another advantage..The war on inflation, led ideologi-cally by the likes of Milton Friedmanand politically by Thatcher, reaganand, closer to home, McCreavey andHarney, coincided with the systemicturn for profits to finance productsand asset appreciation in response tostagnation in the real, commodity-producing economy.For those accumulating millionsand, these days, billions of wealth,high levels of inflation eat into theirwealth and reduce its value. In addi-tion to this, the higher the rate of in-flation the higher a return they needfor the investment to be profitable.So speculators—those making profits

off the speculation of prices—requirea war on inflation to maintain theirprofits while also having the benefitof providing an ideological excuse forkeeping wages low in the commodityproducing economy.While there is no one cause of in-flation but rather a combination ofprocesses and circumstances we doknow that unemployment is a toolfor keeping inflation low and so is anessential feature of capitalism todaywith its dual purpose of buttressingprofits in both speculative financeand commodity production.The European Central Bank, theprincipal monetary policy institutionin Europe, is mandated to maintain alow rate of inflation: less than 2 percent. This is why you never see theECB calling for full employment.

They simply do not want it, and infact actively work against it.This is the reality of the systemtoday; but unions cannot acceptthis. It is not good enough for ourclass. The eight-hour day was wonby our movement 150 years ago.The five-day working week waswon by trade unions generally forworkers 60 years ago. We have to recognise the limita-tions of our industrial leveragetoday with such high degrees ofglobal unemployment and find newways of mobilising workers andcommunities to fight for a betterlife and better future for workingpeople.‘Speculators... require a war on inflation to maintain their profits while also having the benefit of providing an ideological excuse for keeping wages low’

DUNNES Stores has had a HighCourt appeal dismissed over an ear-lier Employment Appeals Tribunaldecision.The EAT had found in favour ofMandate member Liz Doyle after herrequest to return to night duty wasrefused by management.Ms Doyle, who is employed as afull-time member of staff in the Stil-lorgan branch, has worked withDunnes since 1982. She was never issued with a writ-ten contract but always worked 37.5hours plus a late-night. She waspaid double time for the late night.At the end of 2009 the staff in Stil-lorgan were informed that it was tochange from a clothing to a groceryoutlet and that they could transferto Cornelscourt for six weeks fortraining or opt for statutory redun-dancy. Ms Doyle transferred to Cor-nelscourt and continued to work thesame hours including the late night.The Stillorgan store was actuallyclosed for some months and then re-opened as a clothing store with a re-duced offer. Our member was told

that the trading hours would be cutand if she transferred back it wouldbe on a basic full-time contract. Ifshe wished to retain her late-night,she could stay in Cornelscourt. Ms Doyle opted to return to Stil-lorgan but on her return realisedthat even within the reduced tradinghours, it would be possible to hon-our her original contract. She requested that her late-nightworking be restored but this was re-fused by management.Mandate through Divisional Or-ganiser Joe Donnelly lodged claimsunder The Payment of Wages Act onthe basis that Ms Doyle was con-tracted to work 40 hours but wasonly being paid for 37.5 hours. Following a couple of cases beforethe rights Commissioners the issuewas referred to the Employment Ap-peals Trubunal. The EAT unanimously found infavour of Mandate’s position and or-dered the company to pay compen-sation to Ms Doyle for the loss of payfor the late-night working. It is understood the fact that ourmember was paid for the late-night

when she went on holiday was a sig-nificant factor in that decision.Dunnes then appealed that deci-sion to the High Court on a point oflaw. The hearing took place overtwo days in the High Court beforeMr Justice Birmingham. In his court decision on November1, the Judge found that the Tribunalhad decided that Ms Doyle worked40 hours and was remunerated for42.5 hours and that the companyhad failed to put forward any pointof law that would invalidate that de-cision. The judge therefore dismissed theappeal by Dunnes Stores, awardingcosts to the union.Joe Donnelly told Shopfloor: “LizDoyle is to be congratulated for herdetermination to pursue this caseover the long period of time andthrough all the various forums thatit necessitated. “Mandate for its part will not beintimidated by Dunnes use of heavylegal tactics and will represent ourmembers’ rights whenever andwherever necessary.”

INDUSTRIAL NEWS

Dunnes loses appealEvery wipeof his eyestakes Tallacloser toblindness

©Jenny Matthews/Sightsavers

Talla is just five. He has trachoma, a painful eye disease whichcan lead to a lifetime of blindness. Repeated infections causethe eyelashes to turn inwards and slowly and painfully everyblink damages the eye and leads to blindness.Trachoma canbe treated effectively in its early stages with a courseof ointment costing just 50p –but for millions of peoplethis is still too much.

If, like Sightsavers, you believe that nobody should go blindneedlessly from trachoma, river blindness or cataract,please make a donation today to support our eye care workin some of the most deprived communities in the world.

Euro donations, please call 1850 50 20 20 or visit www.sightsavers.ieSterling donations, please call 0800 089 20 20 or visit www.sightsavers.orgPlease quote ICTU. Thank you!

Registered charity numbers 207544 and SC038110

©Jenny Matthews/Sightsavers

HIGH COURT JUDGEMENT


SOUNDING OFF...

Health & Safety FETAC Level 5

This course is aimed at Health and Safety representatives

• Health and Safety Legislation• Role of Health and Safety Repre-sentative• Safety statements• Role of Health & Safety Authority• Occupational health

• Identification of hazards and riskassessment• Accident investigation• Fire safety• Effective communications• Health and safety promotion

Topic covered on course:

Certification and Progression: Members who successfully complete this course receive a Fetac Level 5 component award certificate and may progress to other courses offered by Mandate.If you are interested in this course, please contact your Mandate official or Mandate's Training Centre at 01-8369699. Email: [email protected]

Safetyfirst atwork!

By Brian ForbesMandate National Co-ordinatorA HUNDrED years ago workersdesperate to feed their familieswould have lined up down by thedocks or in hiring fairs hoping to belucky enough to be selected to do aday’s work. Later, after receiving their pay-ment, some employers would evenhave “encouraged” the dockers tospend what they had earned in –you guessed it – pubs owned bythose same bosses. If the workerdidn’t comply, he simply wouldn’tbe chosen to work the next day.Bosses today have similar waysof exercising control over their em-ployees. Low hour contracts of em-ployment have increasinglybecome the norm in the Irish retailsector – yet many shop workerswork well over the number ofhours stated on their contracts. Because so many work over theircontracted hours, should they ‘mis-behave’ in the eyes of the employer,their working hours can be slashedto the contracted minimum – bothas a means of punishment and away of controlling the worker. This insidious tactic is used bymany employers to stifle tradeunion activity and to help forge anincreasingly subservient work-force. Another control mechanismbeing deployed is to withhold theposting of rosters until the last pos-sible moment so workers are con-tinually unaware of their workinghours week to week. As a result,they become virtual hostages totheir employer. They are unable tosecure additional employmentelsewhere because of the uncer-tainty of their working week. Some employers spread lowhour contracts over four or fiveworking days which prevents em-ployees from claiming social wel-fare assistance. This keeps themboth hungry for additional hours aswell as flexible to the needs of thebusiness. Thousands of Irish retail work-ers in 2013 are locked out fromearning a decent income becauseof the insatiable desire for totalemployee flexibility – a flexibilitythat replicates the experiences oftheir forebears in 1913.Statistics show that the Irishlabour market is one of the mostflexible in the developed world –Ireland is ranked sixth out of 42countries in figures compiled bythe OECD. And within the EU, onlythe Uk is more flexible than us.The National Employment Sur-vey has revealed that workers inretail are the second lowest paid inIreland. recent Eurostat analysisalso shows that Irish labour costsare 20.6% below the average ofother EU 15 countries. Evidence, ifit was needed, that employers haveeverything tipped in their favour atthe expense of workers, especiallythose earning a living in retail.With the large numbers of busi-nesses closing or threatening toclose in recent years, it has beenthe workers that have invariablyborne the brunt. Companies such as La Senza,HMV and Laura Ashley – to namebut a few – have shut down outlets

with almost complete impunity giventhe weak legislation that exists.Some profitable companies haveopted to grasp the opportunity torenegotiate rents downwards andhave used their workers as cannonfodder in the process. And increasingly workers desper-ate to secure what is owed to themhave occupied premises – sometimesfor months on end as in the case ofthe truly inspirational Vita Cortexworkers – in a virtual economic Mex-ican standoff with bosses. Companies limited by guaranteeare increasingly using “tactical insol-vencies” and abusing the limited lia-bility system to suit their ownnefarious means. Employers who refuse to pay out-standing wages or awards made byemployment rights bodies – such asthe case in the long-running ConnollyShoes dispute in Dun Laoghaire –can, if they construct their companyin a certain way, avoid having to paytheir workers what is owed. This is further exacerbated whenthese employers use outstandingmonies owed to workers to continuetheir businesses conveniently trading

under a different name. And some-times they even use the very samepremises! Limited liability as it is cur-rently constructed provides impunityfor businesses and allows the direc-tors of these companies to move onto their next project without anymoral qualms while workers are leftto struggle without securing theirbasic entitlements, including wagesfor work already done. To further compound this problem,some employers fail to properly windup their firms meaning the Depart-ment of Social Protection InsolvencyPayment Scheme will not make a pay-ment. This results in a double injus-tice for those workers involved.retail in Ireland has seen frighten-ing increases in precarious work im-pacting most heavily on the lowestpaid. The drive for ever-increasing flexi-bility and widening profit marginsmeans many retail workers are hiredon flexible part-time contracts thatdo not provide either certainty ofearnings or a decent standard of in-come. As any semblance of decent workvanishes, it is being increasingly re-

placed by precarious workingarrangements. recent CSO datashows that the share of involuntarypart-time working is growing withmore than 135,000 workers classi-fied as underemployed. This repre-sents a staggering 46% increase on2008 figures and is also the highest

‘Employers who refuse to pay outstanding wages or awardsmade by employment rights bodies – such as the case in thelong-running Connolly Shoes dispute in Dun Laoghaire –can, if they construct their company in a certain way, avoidhaving to pay their workers what is owed’

The modernhiring fair...

within the EU. William Martin Mur-phy, the employers’ darling in 1913,would have been so proud of suchan achievement. Labour market security in 2013 isbecoming increasingly eroded bydemands for greater flexibility tohire and fire, growing use of tempo-rary and part-time contracts, veryflexible working hours, downwardpressure on pay, limited investmentin training and up-skilling alongwith an erosion of social securityrights. Many thousands of retail workersare underemployed and trapped injobs that don’t allow them to earn aliving wage while denying them theopportunity to seek another job oreven to qualify for social welfarepayments. In 2013, we – the Irish taxpayer –are helping to subsidise the flexibil-ity of workforces of major multi-na-tional, hugely-profitable retailersthrough creating underemploymentand the social welfare net that someworkers manage to fall into. In 1913, it was all about workers’rights to join and be represented bytheir trade union. It is incrediblethat we remain one of the few coun-tries in the developed world (andone of only three in the EU) whereworkers are denied the basichuman right to be a member of andbe represented by a trade union forcollective bargaining purposes. Our Fair Shop campaign recognis-ing employers that collectively bar-gain with unions will continue tocarry the message of solidarity, col-lectivism and the benefits of tradeunionism just as in 1913. However, until such times that weas a nation properly legislate infavour of our own working peopleand redress the current imbalancethat is skewed heavily in favour ofbig business and the capitalistclasses, we will remain stuck in aWilliam Martin Murphy-style 1913time-warp with workers and widersociety paying the heaviest ofprices!

Checkpoint: Thousands of Irish retail workers are locked out ofdecent earning a decent income

Picture: Hifabulous (CC BY 2.0)


are men in these deep matters of gov-ernance and justice,” said WoodrowWilson, future President of theUnited States.The US set up conditions for Amer-ica to intervene in Cuban affairsunder the Platt Amendment with theresult that within a few short years,American interests controlled 80% ofall sugar mills, the banks, electric andtelephone companies and all oil re-fineries. By 1958, 75% of all arableland was foreign-owned. Governor Leonard Wood said:“There is, of course, little or no inde-pendence left in Cuba under the PlattAmendment. It is quite apparent thatshe is absolutely in our hands.”The US also blocked the introduc-tion of a minimum wage in the 1920sand put in place one of the most bru-tal dictators in the history of LatinAmerica, Fulgencio Batista.In 1959, a small group of Cubans,frustrated with high levels of povertyand corruption fought back in one ofthe most famous revolutions in re-cent history led by Fidel Castro. The revolution grew in numbersand strength over time and its suc-cess was immediate. Before the revo-lution, 23.6% of the population wereilliterate. Within 12 months the coun-try was comparable with any firstworld nation. Pre-revolutionary Cubahad an infant mortality rate of 60 per1,000. This reduced to 6 per 1,000.Today only Uruguay and Argentinacan compare out of the 19 LatinAmerican countries.At first, the US didn’t know how toreact, but when Castro began takingback control of land from foreign-owned businesses, a new urgencywas found by the US but it had noth-ing to do with civil rights or democ-racy. “The majority of Cubans supportCastro. The only foreseeable meansof alienating internal support isthrough disenchantment and disaf-

End the siege ofVIEWPOINT

fection based on economic dissatis-faction and hardship,” said DeputyAssistant Secretary of State Lestor D.Mallory in April 1960. “We wanted tokeep bread out of the stores so thatpeople would go hungry,” com-mented one CIA officer in the 1970s.The aggression of the US was nevermore evident than when, in 1962, USPresident John F. kennedy, sanc-tioned the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.Lesser known is the fact that JFk wasplanning a second full-scale invasion,

set to take place 50 years ago on De-cember 1, 1963. JFk was shot oneweek before so his plans never cameto fruition.The aggression continued into the1980s when Secretary of State toronald reagan, Alexander Haig, saidto the President: “You just give methe word and I’ll turn that fucking is-land into a parking lot.” The US has also supported terror-ist organisations based out of Miami,who have taken the lives of more

than 3,000 innocent Cubans in thepast four decades.People often blame the Cubans orthe Soviet Union for the Cuban mis-sile crisis, but clearly when you arefaced with this level of aggression, asmall country, isolated by a verypowerful aggressor, will take refugefrom any nation willing to help pro-tect it. The placing of Soviet missiles inCuba was not an act of aggression byCuba, but an act of protection for its

citizens. The failed military interven-tions resulted in an economic re-sponse – the longest blockade ever –with dire consequences for the peo-ple of Cuba.On a recent trip to Cuba, I askedone of our tour guides what hethought of the US embargo on hiscountry. His response was simple: “Itis a policy dictated by a few verypowerful wealthy people based outof Miami. People who lost propertyand entitlements due to the revolu-

By David GibneyMandate communications officerTHE Cuban embargo by the United States of America,which has been in place for more than 50 years, continuesto strangle the economic and social progress of the smallcountry. Now, more than ever, it is costing lives.At a recent meeting between the Cuban Ambassador toIreland Teresita Trujillo and Mandate General SecretaryJohn Douglas, Ms Trujillo said: “The embargo is worsenow under the Presidency of Barack Obama than it everwas under George Bush jnr.” This illustrates the longevity of the petty grudge held bythe most powerful nation on earth, which is determinednot to allow an independent country with an alternativeeconomic, democratic and social model to succeed.The Americans will insist that their policy of isolationagainst the Cuban people is based on breaches of humanand civil rights and the promotion of democracy. But thisis quite clearly a convenient smokescreen for the real rea-sons for the policy. How is it that the US is so concerned for civil andhuman rights in Cuba, but continues to deal openly andpositively with Saudi Arabia, Iran and China? Where is theconcern for the citizens of Palestine who are consistentlyoppressed by the Israeli government? The hypocrisy ispalpable.The history between the two countries goes back cen-turies but their modern history began in 1898 when, afterfighting for independence against the Spanish for morethan three years, the Cubans were joined by the US duringthe final three months of the war. After the Cubans weresuccessful, the US felt it should be them and not theCubans who should put in place future determinations forthe country.“Our new subjects, foolish, impulsive, headstrong, un-reasonable… We are old in this learning and they mustobey those who are in tutelage. They are children and we

Picture: Twice Pix (CC BY 2.0)

Carribean hot seat: Mandate’s David Gibney flanked by a mural to the CubanFive, taken during his recent visit to Cuba


By Dr Conor McCabeAS OF October 31, 2013 the me-dian residential property price inIreland stood at €139,000. That is,half of all houses and apartmentssold in the country so far this yearwent for under €139,000, theother half over that figure. This was a drop of seven percent from the previous year, whenthe median price was €150,000.Back in 2010, the first year of theproperty price register, the medianprice was €202,643.Given that this is the case, andgiven that employment and wageshave been stagnant, why is all thetalk of a return to property boomtimes? The above figures are nationalfigures, while the rise in price hasbeen a regional feature – essen-tially confined to about half adozen postal addresses in Dublin.One curious feature of Dublinresidential property is that the risein price has not been on all housesand apartments. In fact, prices atthe lower end of the scale continueto drop, while prices near the me-dian and upwards are rising. Nationally, the 19,380 propertiessold up to the end of October havea total value of: €4.005 billion. Half of that figure is accountedfor by the sale of 3,366 proper-ties – that is, 17% of all sales. Theother 83% makes up the otherhalf.For example, the most expensiveproperty listed related to the saleof Clancy Barracks, Dublin, whichwent for €61 million, not includingVAT. The next most expensive was anapartment block on Clancy Quaywhich went for €60 million. Bothof these sales were to internationalcorporate investors.The director of research at Sav-ills Ireland, John McCarthy, tried toexplain the rise in prices by sayingthat cash sales were driving themup in the capital. The top 10% in sales in Dublinthis year – a figure of €400 million

– relates to just 90 properties outof a total of 7,312 sold from Janu-ary to October this year. I wonder ifthese are part of Savills Ireland’s‘cash sales’ phenomenon?Outside of the gated communi-ties of Dublin’s more affluent sub-urbs, both within the capital andacross the country, the picture isnot so chipper. Prices continue to fall while littleis put in place to deal with the ris-ing negative equity which comeswith such a scenario. Government policy remainsfixed on dampening wages, avoid-ing any form of employment-ledgrowth, while it increases taxesand charges on the majority of thepopulation. There is a plan at work here.This is an economic policy de-signed to protect those whosewealth is based not on productionbut on paper assets, and in particu-lar financial paper assets. They experience it as securingtheir wealth; we experience it asausterity. In April of this year the FinancialTimes printed an article which gotto the heart of drive for austerity. Ittalked about inflation and how forthe past 30 years the policieswhich kept inflation at ultra-lowrates came at a price, and thatprice was carried by the labourforce. “It is not a coincidence that theshare of labour in GDP [that is, theshare of national GDP which isheld by the labour force] peaks inthe 1970s for both the US and theUk,” it said. “Given that the largestelement of costs was – and re-mains – labour, the fight against in-flation amounted to a campaign tosqueeze labour incomes.”At the same time, the drive todampen wages (and wage-ledgrowth) “produced a 30-year bullmarket for bonds.”This policy to dampen wages tobenefit bonds took place under theheading of ‘beating’ inflation. And,as the Financial Times concludes,

“this success in beating inflationhas been achieved at the cost of adeclining share of labour in na-tional income.”With regard to housing, what isthe link? Well, as wage-growth de-clined in order to favour financialpaper asset markets such as bondmarkets, personal credit was usedto bridge the gap between livingcosts and pay packets. The largest single example ofthis is in housing as the vast major-ity of home-owners do not buy ahouse – they purchase a mortgageand then with the mortgage theypay for a house. Irish banks first moved into themortgage market in a serious wayin the mid-1970s. By the mid-to-late 1990s Irish residential prop-erty prices lose any relation toactual wage income. As this gap in-creased, negative equity became acase not of if, but when.At the same time the nationalagreements known as Partnershiphad the economic policies of fi-nance hotwired into their very ar-chitecture. Wage-led growth was side-linedin lieu of tax breaks and cheapercredit. These policies were de-signed to benefit finance and in-vestors in paper assets as it keptwage-led growth at such low levelsas to make profit-seeking in paperasset speculation affordable. For the first eight years of thePartnership agreements the lack ofemployment growth was a con-stant criticism of the process. Thenthe commercial and residentialproperty speculation bubble tookoff, and all sins were forgiven.Today, the structural defects re-main. Investment in paper assets isprivileged over actual employmentwhich pays a living wage. We need inflation which eatsinto paper assets by transferringnational wealth back to the labourforce. If there is a battle going for-ward, this is where it needs to takeplace.‘There is a plan at work here. This is an economic policy designed to protect those whose wealth is based not on production but on paper assets, and in particular financial paper assets’

ANALYSIS HOUSING

We arebeing...

tion. The vast majority of Cubans inthe US want the embargo lifted.”His understanding of the situationis precise. Yet, still, the US persists inmaking life difficult for ordinaryCubans. This year saw the US moreisolated than ever at the UN GeneralAssembly when 188 countries votedagainst the blockade and only twocountries (the US and Israel) voted tocontinue it.Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno ro-driguez Parrilla said: “Cuba has lostmore than $1.1 trillion dollars be-cause of the embargo.” According tothe minister, “the blockade preventsCuba from getting heart and anti-AIDS drugs for children.”An estimated 90% of all medicalpatents are under the control ofAmerican companies meaning theCuban people have to suffer the mostdamning effects of an extended, un-necessary and pointless grudge.“Children have died because wehaven’t been able to purchase certainitems that are prohibited under theembargo,” said Dr Alejandro Gonza-lez, head of hematology at the CubanNational Children’s Hospital.Another farcical aspect to theblockade of Cuba is the travel em-bargo. Although recently relaxed toallow US residents born in Cuba toreturn, they still refuse to allow UScitizens to visit the country.rafael Hernandez, who edits theHavana-based Temas magazine, said:“The way they want to deal withCuba is to deny Americans to travelhere, to deny freedom of trade, todeny those freedoms they say theyare so supportive of in Cuba, but theydeny them to their own citizens.“There is a perverse logic to it, andtheir rationale is ridiculous. Are theyafraid that the Americans would be-come Fidelistas or communists if thevisited Cuba? They believe this polit-ical system is so awful, so let them

come and see it for themselves. Theywill find what the American presssays about Cuba is not true.“The US press controls the mes-sage about Cuba, based on the right-wing agenda. If Americans came herethey would see for themselves, andsee that message is false.”Secretary of State Hillary Clintonrecently said: “The Castro brothersdo not want to see an end to the em-bargo… because then they would loseall the excuses for what hasn’t hap-pened in Cuba in the last 50 years.”responding to this, National As-sembly President ricardo Alarconsaid: “If she really thinks that theblockade benefits the Cuban govern-ment – which she wants to under-mine – the solution is very simple:that they lift it even for a year to seewhether it’s in our interests ortheirs.”Quite clearly, the US cannot allow asocialist economic and political sys-tem to succeed because it would un-dermine everything the Americansbelieve in. The current siege will not workand has only strengthened the revo-lution, so what are the real motivesbehind it? Is it being used as a punishmentfor disrupting the natural order ofthe free market? Is it to being used todissuade other countries from fol-lowing the same path?Or are the smart people in the CIAand the US government still of thebelief, after more than 50 years, thatstarving people of food and medicinewill somehow incentivise the over-throwing of the Cuban government,which is without any historicalprecedence. I’ll let you decide. If you’d like to find out more aboutthe Cuban embargo, read Cuba UnderSiege: American Policy, the Revolutionand Its People, by keith Bolender.

General Secretary John Douglas presents Cuban Ambassador to Ireland Teresita Trujillo with a1913 Lockout commemorative coin during her recent visit to the union’s Dublin HQ


LEGACY

ONE winter’s day I was introduced tothe story of Anne Devlin. You canread about her online but in kilmain-ham Gaol you can feel her story andthat’s a huge difference. What I will do, is explain the per-son I was who walked into the gaolthat day, the impact Anne’s story hadon me and the admiration I have forthe man who told her story so beauti-fully.Since leaving school in the 1980smy life has flown by. I have sincelearned that Madonna was far frombeing Like a Virgin and robertPalmer wasn’t really Addicted to Love.I remember my Last Christmas listen-ing to George Michael before he cameout of the closet destroying a fiveyear crush. In my early twenties I became amammy to a little girl, Hannah. Itwasn’t until she entered secondaryschool that something started towake up inside me. We were ap-proaching our first parent/teachersmeeting and I wanted to appear to bepositively contributing to her educa-tion. Hannah had inherited my apathyin the classroom and doing home-work with her was as appealing tome as chewing rusty nails. So I tookher to kilmainham with the good in-tention of telling her history teacher,I was a pro-education parent. Onecold grey Sunday Hannah and I tookoff to kilmainham.Our tour guide was Micheal ODoibhilin. He walked us through thegaol giving us an impressive insightinto its political and social history.His delivery was spellbinding. It’s an eerie, atmospheric buildingand there was so much informationto process in one visit. However, thatday Michael spoke with feeling about

Anne Devlin and his words created abeautiful monument to her. In brief, Anne posed as a house-keeper to the rebel leader robertEmmet. Emmet, for those of you whowere snoozing their way through theLeaving Cert (as I was), led a rebel-lion in 1803 against British rule inIreland. Her role as housekeeper was togive the appearance of a normalhousehold but she was much morethan a housekeeper. She carried cru-cial secret messages to and from thehouse. She took part in discussionswith Emmet and his supporters ontheir aspirations for an Ireland ofself-rule, equality, and the eradica-tion of poverty. However, Emmet’s re-bellion failed and he was arrested. Anne was subsequently arrestedand imprisoned in a cold, filthy cell inkilmainham Gaol. She had enough in-formation to lead to the arrest of an-

other 50 men who had supportedEmmet yet she choose to stay silent.Emmet told Anne, “Save yourself, I’ma dead man”, but to no avail. She was physically and mentallytortured, kept in horrifically harshconditions and witnessed her fam-ily’s arrest, none of which broke hersilence. When torture failed, she wasoffered and refused a bribe thatwould have been the equivalent to 40years wages at the time. I was certainat this stage her courage andstrength could only have been due toher being romantically and hope-lessly in love with Emmet – but thatwasn’t the case. Emmet was roman-tically involved with Ann Curran andAnne selflessly passed letters be-tween the two lovers with no regardto her own personal safety.Anne survived imprisonment andkept her silence. She went on tomarry, have children, before dying inpoverty, alone.

But it wasn’t how she died that in-spired me, it was how she lived. Shewas a mother, a daughter, a wife; shewas an ordinary woman with an ex-traordinary character. Her story revealed to me what in-tegrity, clearly defined principles andloyalty actually meant. She went out-side herself and found meaning andpurpose in cause greater than per-sonal gain or self-gratification. She didn’t die dramatically in frontof a firing squad and – unlikeEmmet – she didn’t leave behind acharismatic speech but she left a loudmessage in her loyal silence. As I left kilmainham that day, Iknew I had got temporary releasefrom the prison of my own ignorance.Hannah and I took the little bookMichael had written homw. The Dis-ney books went under the bed andwe read Anne’s story together, bothdeeply moved. I took more than that book homewith me that day. A friend once toldme that the role of education is toleave us with more questions thananswers. I left kilmainham withmany questions and a real sense ofexcitement. I questioned what theword integrity meant to me? Whatwere my principles? What were thevalues that underpinned them? Whatdo I stand for with conviction? WouldI be willing to snub personal gain inplace of what’s right and for a greatergood? Am I capable of being half thewomen Anne Devlin was? My biggest contribution to a causewas sharing a page on Facebook. Ionly moved my finger over a keypad.robert Emmet got his whole head re-moved for a cause and Anne Devlinwas willing do the same. I was blownaway by their bravery and passion.The impact on me has been huge. I

feel like a tourist in my own city now.I now look up while I’m walking thestreets at the buildings that could tella hundred romantic, tragic, coura-geous stories. Stories that inspire ourpassion, that shapes our thoughtsand actions. Do we really want to read storiesabout the size of kim kardasian’s be-hind or what was it that Miley Cyrussmoked on the MTV Music Awardsstage? But who wants a nation ofpassionate, courageous people withintegrity? And what better way tomedicate that energy than feed thembullshit stories straight into our liv-ing room via X Factor and I’m aCelebrity. Are we planting the seeds for thenext generation of uninspired, disil-lusioned nitwits, adults whose valueshave been shaped by the fashion andmusic industry? I think it’s a stepforward in challenging our apathywhen we stand on a picket line in therain, speak our truth , stand behindwhat’s right instead of getting aheadignoring what’s wrong.In a nutshell Anne’s life storymakes me want to be a better person.I don’t think I’m quite ready to gettortured in freezing prison cell and Istill like the odd Madonna song but Iwant to know more and be more andmost importantly give more. There’s a great quote in the book, itreads: “Is iad a d’aighean an tine beo“ (“It was they who fanned the livingflame”) On that note, I am grateful to thatwonderful tour guide who fanned theflame of interest in me, I’m gratefulfor living a beautiful city that I’mlooking forward to getting to knowbetter and I’m grateful to Anne De-vlin for the sacrifices and hardshipshe endure for a better Ireland.

Statue of1803 Rebellionheroine Ann Devlin

Jean Browne, an administrator for Mandate, writesabout how a visit to Kilmainham Gaol one freezingwinter’s day sparked a fascination with Anne Devlin,heroine of Robert Emmet’s ill-fated 1803 rebellion

How Anne Devlin fannedthe livingflame....


By Gerry LightAssistant General SecretaryAT THE start of August, senior man-agement at M&S contacted the unionseeking engagement across a rangeof cost-saving initiatives. Central to these were the closureof four stores, the removal of theChristmas bonus and reductions inSunday and public holiday premiumsand the overall number of sectionmanagers. At the start of the negotiationswith the company we were emphati-cally assured that these items consti-tuted the full range of issues beingtargeted. To our astonishment a couple ofmeetings later management also de-clared their intention to unilaterallyremove the long-established definedbenefit pension enjoyed by some 900of our members in the company. Initially the blame for this courseof action was laid at the door of thescheme Trustees who we were toldby management had to act becausethe scheme was in deficit. After some further investigationthe union subsequently discoveredthat in fact it was the company whowas responsible for requesting theclosure of the scheme and in fact thescheme was in surplus to the tune ofsome €16m. Incredibly management hold theview that the pension scheme was adiscretionary benefit and did notconstitute a term and condition ofemployment. Clearly the manner in which man-agement decided to unilaterally actand the reality that their decisionswere less than credible forced theunion to immediately suspend thenational negotiations on all issues. The scheme was ultimately closedon the October 31 without agree-ment. Accordingly following a series

of general meetings to gauge the feel-ings of the members, we commenceda ballot for industrial action nation-wide.At the time of writing two concilia-tion conferences have taken place atthe Labour relations Commission.Sadly no real progress can be re-ported at this stage. It is apparent that if managementhold their position and our membersultimately decide to vote for indus-trial action this action will happen inthe run up to Christmas 2013. Over the past five years in particu-lar this union and our members haveshown a real capacity to grasp anddeal with difficult situations whichlargely arise from the drop off insales due to the economic recession. regardless of the scale of these dif-ficulties we will not tolerate in M&Sor elsewhere unilateral action by em-ployers that amounts to the reduc-tion or removal of valuable terms andconditions secured for our membersin the past. While we would have preferrednot to have arrived at this impasse inM&S, it is somewhat reassuring toobserve the determination and senseof solidarity shown by our membersin responding to the company. There can be no doubt that the in-dustrial relations environment hassignificantly changed in M&S overthe last number of months. Clearlythe change is not for the better andhas come about solely as a result ofthe behaviour of the managementteam. Whether these difficulties deepenand prolong is entirely down to them.One thing is certain and should notbe doubted and that is the will of ourmembers to defend their intereststhrough whatever legitimate meansavailable to them.

OPINION

The changingface of M&S

By John DouglasMandate General SecretaryWHILE much of the debate sur-rounding the 2022 World Cup inQatar continues on the playing con-ditions (the effect of intense heat onmillionaire soccer stars), little or nofocus has been placed on the plightof the tens of thousands of migrantconstruction workers who havebeen drafted in to build the footballfacilities and infrastructure in oneof the richest countries in theworld.Amnesty International has issueda recent report on the plight ofthousands of migrant workers,mainly from South Asia – the reporthas found “alarming levels of ex-

ploitation”. The InternationalTrade Union Confederation has alsohighlighted mass abuse of workers’rights in Qatar from poor to non-payment of wages, appalling andsqualid living conditions and manydangerous health and safety viola-tions. Workers are often housed inhuge camps and bussed to andfrom the construction sites, wherethey work 12 hour days, seven daysa week in the soaring heat of Qatar. Workers are forced to work forthe one employer and are refusedthe right to change employers – nomatter how badly they are beingtreated. Passports are often held by

the employer, thereby prohibitingworkers from returning to theirhome countries. FIFA needs to make it clear to thegovernment of Qatar that humanrights abuses and poor labour stan-dards are not in keeping with thespirit of the World Cup. And we as football fans need tobe satisfied when we watch ourwell-paid soccer stars grace thepitches of the 2022 World Cup, thefacilities are not littered with theblood and exploitation of vulnera-ble migrant works. Let’s score for workers’ rights!For further information, visitwww.ituc-csi.org

Play fair: Injured construction worker in a Qatari labour camp Picture: ITUC

Let’s score for workers’ rights!

INTERNATIONAL QATARI WORLD CUP

tHE Migrant Rights Centre Irelandhas welcomed the rescue of threewomen from alleged domesticservitude in london, claiming itunderlined the need for all victimsof slavery to be protected and sup-ported.

Director siobhán o’Donoghuepointed out that the reported de-tails of the women’s situation re-sembled many of the cases MRCIhad dealt with, although sheadded that the length of time theywere held was beyond anythingthe MRCI had encountered.

she told Shopfloor: “we’ve seenwomen and men held in domesticservitude, afraid for their lives,threatened, physically and men-tally abused, their documentswithheld, their movements con-trolled. this is happening rightnow in Ireland – a fact the authori-ties here are often reluctant to be-

lieve, which means victims of slav-ery are often not identified assuch.”

the MRCI has dealt with almost200 separate cases of forcedlabour around the country, a highproportion of which were cases ofdomestic servitude. Forced labour(the modern term for slavery) wasonly criminalised in Ireland earlierthis year.

“Domestic servitude is by its na-ture a hidden crime – limited con-tact with the outside world meansvictims have no one to turn to,” Mso’Donoghue continued.

“It cuts across all sectors, com-munities and classes. Modern slav-ery happens in the most mundane,ordinary households and busi-nesses. People need to know theyhave rights, no matter what theirage, nationality or immigration

status.” MRCI highlighted the needfor a period of recovery and reflec-tion for all victims of slavery, asmandated by the Council of Eu-rope but rarely applied in Ireland.

Ms o’Donoghue explained: “Vic-tims are likely to be traumatisedand extremely vulnerable; theyoften need time to adjust andprocess what they have beenthrough before they can partici-pate in an investigation.

“their health, security and well-being are paramount, especially inthe months immediately followingescape.

“so many of the people we workwith have been left in limbo by thestate.

“Modern slavery is a growingissue in Ireland and globally, andshocking cases like this highlightthe need for vigilance and action.”

Domestic slavery victims needprotection, support and time


By David GibneyMandate communications officerMANDATE member Sandra Stapletongave a rousing speech at the recentPeople's Assembly protest outsideLeinster House. Criticising the political system andgovernment parties, she called forpeople to come together to demand abetter and fairer Ireland for all.Ms Stapleton, who worked in theretail sector for 11 years, is now anunemployed member of Mandate.She told protesters that roughly50,000 retail workers had lost theirjobs during the past four years. "That’s 50,000 families from one

sector of the economy in this countrywho have lost at least one personwho was providing for them.“That means less money to heattheir homes, less money to buy de-cent healthy food for their familiesand it also means less money to beable to participate in this society. “That's not to mention the thou-sands of other retail workers whohave had their pay reduced and arealso struggling to get by."Ms Stapleton explained why shebelieves people are losing jobs andhaving their income slashed."Because our political leaders in-sist on cutting public sector pay. They

insist on introducing taxes, like theproperty tax and water charges.Taxes that take money from the pock-ets of the very people who used tospend money in the shop I used towork in. “If you keep taking money from or-dinary workers’ pockets, then theycan't shop in their local restaurant,bar or supermarket."Then they act all surprised whenthe social welfare bill goes up be-cause retail workers keep losing theirjobs. So what do they do? They cutthe social welfare rates and theneven more people have less money tospend in the shops."

Ms Stapleton in particular ventedher anger at politicians who tellworkers they should ‘pull on thegreen jersey’ and ‘we're all in this to-gether’. "Well, how is it that the richestpeople in this country are actuallygetting richer? “How is it that the poorest face so-cial welfare cuts, reduced publicservices, cuts to carers grants? Whyis it that workers have to work morehours if they can get them, just tomake ends meet?"How do they not see that all theseattacks on workers’ incomes is con-tributing to our unemployment cri-MUSINGS...

By Niall ShanahanIMPACT communications officerAS THE LAST of the Troika represen-tatives check out of their rooms atthe Merrion Hotel and we wave afinal goodbye (don’t let the door hityou on your way out, lads), we mightask ourselves if we’re in a betterplace now? The collective trauma of thebailout experience is, I think, stillwith us. The Troika arrived after twoyears of economic catastrophe,bringing giant clouds of doom to rivalthose giant spaceships from Inde-pendence Day. For the first few weeks we watchedwith a mixture of wonder and horroras these hitherto anonymous figureswalked into Government buildingseach morning to go through the na-tion’s books. Every unpopular policydecision that came after that wascredited to the severity of our neweconomic masters.And now they’re gone. The cloudsof doom are being traded for highhopes. The political class will talkmuch about what it means to regainour economic sovereignty, but as oneof them once said, that doesn’t ‘but-ter too many parsnips’. We still have a very serious prob-lem with unemployment. Emigrationis back, and no amount of talkingabout the consolations of Skype candisguise the fact that lots of youngpeople are not choosing to leave, they

Whoah! Easy on there fellas, I saidwe were trading the clouds of doomfor high hopes! What just happened?Well, in a nutshell, this report con-firms to us that – in or out of abailout situation – the Europe-wideeconomic crisis has corroded every-thing it has touched. It contains lotsof stark information about how peo-ple are coping across Europe withthe fallout from the economic crisis,including wealthier countries such asGermany and Denmark. But I’m still hanging on to the ideathat there is light at the end of thistunnel. I believe that feeling is sharedby a lot of Irish people, despite every-thing. So I drew some comfort from a re-cent visit to Dublin by TUC GeneralSecretary Frances O’Grady. She acknowledged the grim out-look outlined by the red Cross, butreminded the audience that Europehas overcome very significant chal-lenges in the past: in the aftermath ofthe Second World War, the fall of theBerlin Wall and EU enlargement tothe East in the last decade. “Each time our continent suc-ceeded in rising to these challenges

because we had the courage to takethe high road. Because collectivelywe refused to walk away from the so-cial solidarity that has brought the di-verse peoples of Europe together,”she said.That bit about social solidarity I re-ally believe is the key to Ireland’spost-Troika fate. If we can be guidedby that idea, I think there’s genuinecause for optimism.Social Protection Minister JoanBurton recently called for the intro-duction of a ‘living wage’. That means ensuring workers arepaid enough to meet the cost of hous-

sis?” Ms Stapleton asked what conse-quences a growing economy wouldhave on the social fabric of Ireland ifwe continue down the same failedpath of austerity."They may, and I emphasise may,get our economy growing eventually,but at what cost? “How many ordinary workers willhave been thrown on the scrapheapto improve our GDP ratio? “How many families will have losttheir homes to the banks that they'vebailed out? “How many children have lost theirone chance for the best educationthey could possibly get, damagingtheir future prospects? “And how many older people havedied on hospital beds because theydidn't get the care they deserved orwhere entitled to?"And all because our politicians de-cided to bail out bankers and protectthe wealthy!" she added.Ms Stapleton, explaining why shewas at the protest, said: "I am heretoday because I believe a better andfairer way is not only possible but itis also achievable. “But it's not going to happen on itsown. We all need to come together asa strong collective and send an em-phatic message to the people in Lein-ster House who were elected torepresent us."We need the unemployed, theunder-employed and the tradeunionists. We need the volunteers,the NGOs and the local communitygroups. We need young people, olderpeople and the middle aged. “We need the men and the womenof this country to stand up and say,enough is enough. This is our countryand we're taking it back."

are being forced to leave.But the harder economic reality isthat Ireland’s experience is notunique. In an analysis of Europe’scurrent circumstances, a new studyby the International Federation ofred Cross and red Crescent Societies(IFrC), says that Europe is facing itsworst humanitarian crisis in sixdecades, and is sinking into a pro-tracted period of deepening poverty,mass unemployment, social exclu-sion, greater inequality, and collec-tive despair, while the long-termconsequences of the European eco-nomic crisis remain unknown.

Here’s to high hopesing, healthcare, food and heating. It’sa familiar concept in the Uk, but theconversation in Ireland has only justbegun. Columnist Colette Brownewrote about it in the Indo recently.Browne highlighted the fact thatsome employers have been using theeconomic crash as a pretext for at-tacking workers’ pay and conditions.Sound familiar? It’s one of the rea-sons the gap in income between richand poor has opened up so widely inrecent years. The introduction of a living wage,alongside a prohibition on things likezero-hours contracts, is precisely thekind of policy that gives real expres-sion to that idea of social solidarity.It’s the kind of policy that enablesgreater economic participation by allcitizens, which is vital to Ireland’seconomic recovery.Starting the debate about a livingwage is a good sign. It’s likely to berubbished by employer bodies andthe business lobby. But they will haveto take a longer view, and realise thata living wage will ultimately providea better economic environment forthem too. You might even say theirfuture depends upon it.So, as the Troika departs, it seemsto me that if regaining economic sov-ereignty means anything, it’s about arenewed capacity for us all to makedecisions for the collective good. I have high hopes.

‘...if regaining eco-nomic sovereigntymeans anything, it’s about a renewedcapacity for us all tomake decisions forthe collective good’

GENERAL NEWS

‘Workers thrown on scrapheap’:Sandra Stapleton addressing People’s Assembly protest outsideLeinster House Picture: Trade Union TV

‘A better,fairer wayis notgoing tohappen on its own’


yoU recently wrote a book, WhyUnions Matter, can you describethe state of the trade union move-ment in the Us post the massivepublic sector struggles we haveseen?I don’t know if I would characterisethe public sector struggles as mas-sive, though both the one in Wiscon-sin and that of the Chicago TeachersUnion were important, at least interms of giving public sector workersconfidence that they could fight backand even win some battles. However,these and others that might developin the future will face considerableobstacles.Most of us who see the need for aradical labour movement in theUnited States, or at least one that em-braces the old Industrial Workers ofthe World motto that “an injury toone is an injury to all,” tend to seeevery victorious strike or Wisconsin-like uprising as the start of some-thing new and revolutionary. However, while hope springs eter-nal, we should understand that pow-erful obstacles face all labour reformefforts, including that spawned bythe Chicago Teachers Union.First, while the COrE and the CTUwon a remarkable victory with thestrike, the union still faces powerfulenemies: billionaires who controllarge swathes of the economy, the na-tion’s political machinery, and themedia. When they suffer a defeat,they don’t crawl into a corner andlick their wounds; they find newways to get what they want. The CTUdid not manage to win the thingsthey wanted most.What is more, Chicago Mayorrahm Emanuel didn’t miss a beat incontinuing to close schools. His hand-picked school board agreed to closeanother 49 schools, the largest massclosing in US history. Draconian budget cuts have beenimplemented, targeting mainly poorcommunities while maintainingfunding for schools in richer areasand continuing the move towardcharter schools. School principals are to gain broadnew powers to hire and fire teachersand to decide how funds are to bespent, under a new budgetingscheme that lumps teachers’ pay inwith every other expenditure. Eachschool will be allocated funds accord-ing to the number of students. Instead of the number of teachersbeing determined by rules for classsize, staffing will be determined byprincipals, who will now have a fixedsum of money available to them.Therefore, administrators will have astrong incentive to get rid of tenured,better-paid educators in order tostretch tight budgets as far as possi-

ble. The CTU has vigorously opposedthe new cuts, with mass protests byteachers, parents, and students, inwhich scores of protestors have beenarrested. These actions saved a fewschools from closure. The union is planning moreprotests, lawsuits against the clos-ings, and efforts to rid the city ofMayor Emanuel and hostile state leg-islators. A massive voter registrationcampaign is in the works. These arepraiseworthy efforts, but they are de-fensive and certainly not assured ofsuccess.Second, while the joining togetherof teachers and communities is es-sential to the consolidation of bothunion and citizen power, more soli-darity will be needed if a labor move-ment worthy of the name is to bebuilt. The working class itself willhave to be mobilised, beginning withmembers of the teachers’ unions na-tionwide and spreading to those ofother unions, in Chicago and every-where teachers are on the march. If the teachers’ unions are unlikelyto aggressively support the CTU andother radical local union actions, therest of organised labor is still lesslikely to do so. Support might comefrom local unions, but, except for theUnited Electrical Workers and per-haps a few others, national unionswill be missing in action. These are still mired in the muck oflabor-management cooperation; theyare top-down autocracies, afraid oftheir own members. Like the AFL-CIO, the federation to which most ofthem belong, they are joined at thehip to the Democratic Party, whoseleaders and major money donors

support rahm Emanuel and not pub-lic school teachers.Third, rank-and-file insurgencies,in and of themselves, do not guaran-tee that a union will be radicallytransformed. The new leaders aresusceptible to cooptation by employ-ers and political elites, and to a re-treat to business as usual when timesget tough. Creating a new, more democraticculture within a union is hard work;it requires patience, rank-and-file ed-ucation programs, a willingness totrust the members, and a commit-ment to a permanently adversarialrelationship with those sitting acrossthe bargaining table.Finally, the fact that a group of re-formers gets elected to lead a uniondoes not mean that the union willembrace the kind of class conscious,anti-capitalist perspective that alonecould help create a labor movement.COrE’s commitment to embed itselfin the communities that teachersserve, especially those where poor,mainly minority parents live, is im-portant. We are facing the imposition byour economic masters of what prom-ises to be unending austerity, andthose most supportive of COrE haveand will continue to suffer most as aresult. The promise of public sectorunions has been debated for at least40 years. Perhaps some teachershave finally seen the light, and, in theface of unprecedented attacks onthem and public schools, are begin-ning to create new unions, new al-liances, a new politics in our townsand cities. As always, I am hopeful.

IN MY OPINION...

By Robert McNamaraIndustrial OfficerIt Is the centenary year of the1913 lockout, and we still havenot established legislation forstatutory trade union recogni-tion.

this is despite clear commit-ments given by the previousgovernment during the course ofthe lisbon treaty debates overthe provision of collective bar-gaining rights.

Clear commitments were alsogiven by the labour Party beforethe last general Election that leg-islating for collective bargainingwas a priority for them.

Indeed a clear commitmentwas made in the Programme forgovernment that this adminis-tration would reform the currentlaw on employees’ right to en-gage in collective bargaining, soas to ensure compliance by thestate with recent judgments ofthe European Court of HumanRights.

the absence of the right to col-lective bargaining and manda-tory trade union recognitionimpedes the ability of unions toprotect and improve the rights ofworkers, particularly lower paidworkers.

this government must stopshirking its responsibility toworkers and knuckle down tobusiness when it comes to work-ers’ rights.

the labour Party, for manyyears, has supported statutoryrecognition and has given com-mitments to introduce the neces-sary legislation in election

manifestos. this year has to bethe time for the party to honourits pledges. trade union densitylevels now stand at 35.1% in theRepublic of Ireland – a figurewhich has fallen from 38.5% in2003.

this is a massive drop from thefigure for 1980 when more thanhalf of the workforce were intrade unions.

In fairness, in an effort totackle density levels, most trade

unions are going to great lengthsto halt the decline, through spe-cific recruitment and organisingcampaigns.

But unions are severely disad-vantaged because of the absenceof the right to statutory tradeunion recognition in the work-place.

the time is now for the tradeunion movement to unify andmount a serious campaign forthe introduction of the necessarylegislation.

Why we needstatutorytrade unionrecognition...

Got the message, Rahm? CTU protest at school closures Picture: firedoglakedotcom (CC BY-SA 2.0)

POLITICAL ECONOMY

The full interview can be read at http://politicaleconomy.ie/?cat=5

Below is an extract from an interview conductedby the politicaleconomy website with Michael Yates, Associate Editor of Monthly Review journal

The forging of new alliances

‘This Governmentmust stop shirkingits responsibilityto workers andknuckle down tobusiness when itcomes to workers’rights’


TRAINING

What Mandate training has done for me

– Dave ReidIn 2007, I was elected shopsteward in Superquinn Blan-chardstown. In Septemberof that year, I attended myfirst training course with Mandate. Itwas the Introductory Shop Stewardscourse. On my arrival the first morning, Iwas amazed such facilities in theTraining Centre. It has to be the mostup-to-date Training Centre. Thetraining itself is so informal. Theroom of strangers on that first morn-ing soon became a close-knit bunchthat helped each other through thecourse and also enjoyed each other'scompany. That first course gave me the confi-dence to go on and do five or sixmore courses. It also gave me theconfidence to speak in public – some-thing I thought I could never do. Oneof my other courses was the Trainthe Trainer course for which I re-ceived a distinction at Fetac Level 6.This union and its Training Centrehas given me confidence in myselfthat I don't think I would ever havegot without them. My experiences to date has beenthe highlight of my career and tothink it has all be free. I would rec-ommend these courses to every Man-date member as it will bring out thereal you. The courses and tutors arethe best of the best.Connecting into training

– Crina BordeiComing to the Training Cen-tre, I have discovered that thisis a great opportunity for peo-ple/members to connect withother Mandate members and net-work. Mandate's Training Centreruns a wide range of courses whichare very practical for adult peoplewho wish to complete their educa-tion. I would recommend thesecourses to every Mandate members.What my Mandate course did for me

– Communication course studentMy course gave me knowl-edge about myself, my work-place, how to speak in public,how to improve language

skills (if English isn't your first lan-guage). Thanks to the Communica-tion course I know what to expectfrom the media, internet or othermeans of communication.What I think about theMandate Training Centre

– Communication course studentThe Mandate Training Centrehas a very positive impact onpeople’s lives. Personally, Ifound out about the numberof courses through email. I signed upfor a Communication course in Sep-tember 2013. My first impression about the Man-date Training Centre exceeded my ex-pectation. All staff working in therewere very helpful and very informa-tive. The Mandate Training Centre isrunning a number of courses whichare very informative and could helppeople in their careers. The trainersare very professional and exception-ally good. The Communication course helpedme to improve my writing skills andgave me the confidence to stand upand speak in front of other people. My Mandate Training experience

– Martin MahonyI, like so many people, leftschool at a young age as I hada chance to take up an appren-ticeship. I have been a mem-ber of a trade union since my teens. In 2007, I was asked would I putmy name forward as a shop steward.I did and I am still enjoying it. Likeall shop stewards, I represent themembers and deal with managementbut the positives to this for me isMandate's Training Centre courses.I have attended various coursessuch as Shop Stewards, Train theTrainer and Communications. Someof these are Fetac level 5 and 6.Like many people my age, it's beena long time since I was in school butall of the training I have received inMandate was nothing like school. The teaching methods are very re-laxed and I feel they are aimed atadult education. I think most adultswho have not attended a class inschool since their school days shouldnot be nervous.

By Aileen MorrisseyMandate National Co-ordinator

On behalf of Mandate Trade Union, I would like to take this opportu-nity to congratulate the members who participated in Mandate'straining courses in 2013. It has been a very successful year with manymembers achieving Fetac awards. It was a pleasure to meet withthese learners during their training. I do hope that many more members will take the opportunity to avail of the training that theirunion provides for them. The following are comments made by Mandate members who attended Mandate training courses:

Everyone helps each other alongand I feel I would not have attendedany evening courses anywhere elsebecause of my lack of confidence.But thanks to Mandate, I am notnervous to attend any course and Iwould highly recommend any courseof interest to all members. So whatdoes my union do for me? Training,confidence but, most importantly, ed-ucation.

Time to get into training

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‘If these members' comments about their training has inspired you to participate in a training course, please contact the Training Centre on 01 8369699. New courses will be starting in January 2014. Courses aredelivered throughout the country so there may be one starting in yourarea. Details of Mandate's training schedule for shop stewards and ofevening courses are available in this issue of Shopfloor and on Mandate'swebsite www.mandate.ie

...they did! Course participantsfrom Newbridge showoff their certificates...


TRAINING COURSES

*OTC = Mandate Organising and Training Centre / Venue dates and times may vary.

Mandate Shop Stewards Training Programme Jan - June 2014

Course Title Dates CourseLocation

Union Representative Introductory 13/14/15 January OTC

Union Representative Advanced Senior 27/28/29 January Sligo

Union Representative Tesco Introductory 3/4/5 February OTC

Union Representative Advanced Senior 17/18/19 February OTC

Union Representative Introductory 24/25/26 February Athlone

Health and Safety Elected Reps FETAC 5 3/4/5/6/7 March OTC

Union Representative SQ Advanced FETAC 5 10/11/12 March OTC

Union Representative Advanced Senior 24/25/26 March Limerick

Union Representative Tesco Advanced FETAC 5 12/13/14 May OTC

Union Representative Introductory 19/20/21 May OTC

Union Representative Advanced FETAC 5 26/27/28 May Cork

Union Representative Advanced FETAC 5 16/17/18 June OTC

This course is open to Mandate members and unemployed members only. Places are limited

with a maximum of 15 per course.

Starting from scratch this course helps you to use a computer and builds confidence for communicating on-line. This course will commence on:

Tuesday, 14th January 2014 from 6.30pm to 9.00pm Venue: Mandate's Training Centre, Distillery House,

Distillery Road, Dublin 3

If you are interested in attending this training please confirm your place immediately by phoning Mandate’s Training Centre

at 01-8369699 quoting Reference code: OTC 2-2014

Mandate Trade Union is offering you a place on a free computer training course

Starter Computer Course

Interested in a computer training course?

Pic

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: Sch

mec

hter

(CC

BY

2.0)

By Margaret O’ReillyI STArTED working in the grocerysection at Dunnes Stores on EdwardStreet, Newbridge, in 1975. At thattime Owen Nulty was our union offi-cial and most of the staff were full-time and female.Over the years there were many in-dustrial disputes, such as over splitshifts and support for merchandiserswho were being treated indifferently.Just before it opened the DunnesStores Shopping Centre opened itsdoors in 1987, staff from EdwardStreet were preparing the store whenBen Dunne arrived. He was asked bya number of staff about the possibil-ity of disturbance pay. Ben Dunne ordered the staff backto Edward Street informing them thatif they wanted a job in the new store,they would have to apply for it.In 1990, a dispute arose in EdwardStreet about stock taking. Staff wereasked to sign that they would agreeto stay working until stock takingwas finished regardless of time.Some staff refused to sign and theywere suspended indefinitely. In March 1991, the remaining staffarrived for work and were asked ifthey would agree to do stock taking.Management were informed theywould not. Head Office made the decision thatthe store would close and the com-pany attempted to make the staff re-dundant. The union took the case to the Em-ployment Appeals Tribunal whofound in our favour. We were to bereinstated with loss of earnings.Dunnes appealed the decision tothe Circuit Court and a agreementwas reached that staff would be rein-stated and transfer to the new storewith all loss of earnings.Over the years being a member ofthe union has been a real advantageto me and I have remained an activeHouse Committee member.As a member of the union all theseyears I know how important it is tohave the support of my other fellowunion members. We have a very active House Com-mittee who from time to time wouldrepresent staff at grievance and disci-plinary meetings.Mandate held an evening trainingcourse recently which I found very

‘It is so importantthat staff are askedto join the union asyour employer ismore likely to listento you if you havethe backing of otherunion members’

Skills youcan bringwith you...

helpful. The course involved how torepresent staff at grievances and dis-ciplinary meetings, how to recruitmembers into the union and how tocommunicate information to mem-bers. It is so important that staff areasked to join the union as your em-ployer is more likely to listen to you ifyou have the backing of other unionmembers.This year, as a member of theunion, I received information aboutFetac IT and Communicationcourses. We encouraged as many

people as possible to do thesecourses and I did both. I found these courses invaluableand now network with my officialand my colleagues. The Communica-tion course challenged me in so manyways. I had to read a novel of my choiceand then write a paper on it. I madea short presentation to my groupwherein my subject was travel. Allthis was new to me as I finished myschool education at 15 years of age. In October, I received two Fetaccertificate awards along with 12 ofmy colleagues. There was a beautiful presenta-tion ceremony and I was very proudof myself and all those who receivedcertificates that evening.Being a member of the union hasbeen a real benefit to me, and I hopeto continue being active. The courses are free and membersshould avail of them as not only doyou come away with a new skill thatyou can bring with you, but you alsomeet new people who – like me – aremembers of Mandate.

shopfloor december 2013

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