In this issue:
SIPTU welcomes Pfizer $130 million investment announcement
Strike action at Milne Foods in County Offaly
Death of paramedic must never be repeated
Credit Union workers to attend Kells Town Council meeting
Welcome for report on workplace innovation in Ireland
ICTU Biennial Delegate Conference 2013 held in Belfast
Begg tells conference 'now is time for major programme of investment'
Jack O’Connor calls for strategic investment in domestic economy
Fine Gael is denying collective bargaining rights
Campaign for repeal of emergency FEMPI legislation
Fire Fighter's Wedding
Support workers in Ireland
Visit the Dublin tenement experience
IBEC call protects wealthy at expense of less well off
NERI questions proposal for a €3 billion budget adjustment
GDP figures make clear crisis is far from over
Global Labour Column
Can the Rehn-Meidner model be a guiding star for the EU countries like Ireland?
The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival
Claiming our Future - Budget Alternatives
Fair Hotel
Fair Hotels
Larkin Credit Union
The James Plunkett Short Story Award
SIPTU Membership Services - Summer Offers from JLT
SIPTU Basic English Scheme
VHI Affordable Plans
Supporting Quality
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SIPTU welcomes Pfizer $130 million investment announcement

SIPTU has welcomed the announcement today (Thursday, 11th July) that Pfizer Ireland Ltd intends to invest $130 million in new manufacturing and research facilities in Ringaskiddy and Grangecastle in County Cork.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Alan O’Leary, said: “This investment by Pfizer Ireland Ltd is particularly important as the pharmaceutical industry is currently undergoing a major transition away from big bulk manufactured products towards lower volume produced drugs. Significant job cuts have been experienced in the industry over recent years as a direct result of patent expiry and the associated drop in volumes.”
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Strike action at Milne Foods in County Offaly

SIPTU members have commenced 24-hour strike action at Milne Foods in Birr, County Offaly, due to the company’s failure to implement a Labour Court recommendation in relation to workers' conditions of employment.

The strike action began at 6.30 a.m. on Thursday (11th July) with a picket placed on the company’s plant on the Syngefield Industrial Estate in Birr.
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Death of paramedic must never be repeated
 
Simon Sexton
Simon Sexton

SIPTU has called on the Health Service Executive (HSE) to place the utmost emphasis on the health and safety of its employees and ensure that the circumstances that led to the death of a paramedic in 2010 are never repeated.

The call follows the Dublin District Court imposition of a €500,000 fine on Thursday (27th June), on the HSE for health and safety breaches in relation to the death of paramedic and SIPTU member, Simon Sexton.
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Credit Union workers to attend Kells Town Council meeting

Workers and SIPTU representatives will meet with Kells Town Council on Monday, 15th July, to discuss the industrial dispute at St. Colmcilles' Credit Union in Kells, County Meath.

Following a request from SIPTU, councillors confirmed the credit union workers can attend the Town Council meeting to outline the background to the dispute which has arisen in response to a management failure to recognise their union for collective bargaining purposes.

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Welcome for report on workplace innovation in Ireland

A report by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions into workplace innovation in Ireland has been welcomed by SIPTU.

In one of its key findings the ‘Work Organisation and Innovation in Ireland’ report concludes that workplace innovation helps to secure and sustain employment and workplaces.
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ICTU Biennial Delegate Conference 2013 held in Belfast

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions Biennial Delegate Conference (BDC) was held in the Assembly Buildings, Belfast, from Tuesday (2nd July), to Thursday, (4th, July). 

Over 700 delegates and observers attended the conference whose theme was Decent Work, Better Future. The motions debated dealt with a wide range of issues including the economic crisis, the reform of trade union structures, workplace rights and equality.


The Irish Congress of Trade Unions Biennial Delegate Conference in the Assembly Buildings, Belfast on Tuesday, 2nd July.

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Begg tells conference 'now is time for major programme of investment'
 
David Begg
David Begg

Congress General Secretary David Begg has called for a major programme of social investment in the face of “irrefutable evidence that austerity is not working.”

Addressing delegates Begg said: “Five years on we are confronted with irrefutable evidence that austerity is not working. Last week the CSO reported that GDP fell by 0.6% in the first quarter of this year, the third consecutive quarter in which it has fallen. Likewise personal expenditure fell by a further 3 per cent and capital investment fell by 7.4%.

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Jack O’Connor calls for strategic investment in domestic economy
 
Jack O'Connor

The Irish Government must immediately “ramp up the domestic economy” or face exacerbating the economic and social crisis in which the country is locked was the message from SIPTU President Jack O’Connor to delegates.

He said that only by “immediately abandoning one-sided austerity” was there even a slim prospect of Ireland meeting a commitment to its international lenders to reduce the Government deficit to under 3% by 2015 and exit the “troika strait jacket”.
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Fine Gael is denying collective bargaining rights
 

Fine Gael is working with business interests to ensure that new rights on collective bargaining for workers are not implemented, SIPTU Vice-President Patricia King has told the conference.

Addressing the conference on Thursday (4th July), King said the Government was the only body that could deliver changes that would provide workers with collective bargaining rights but one part of the coalition was united with employers in preventing this from happening.
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Campaign for repeal of emergency FEMPI legislation

Conference delegates unanimously passed an emergency motion on Thursday (4th July), in support of "a vigorous and robust campaign" to bring about the repeal of the Fiscal Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation that applies to public sector workers in the Republic.
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Fire Fighter's Wedding


Cieran Scully, Chair of SIPTU National Retained Fire Fighters Committee New Ross Wexford pictured alongside his bride, Collette Mulready, and work colleagues after their wedding on Friday, 5th July.
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Support workers in Ireland

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Visit the Dublin tenement experience

The Dublin Tenement Experience: Living the Lockout, is an innovative performance and interpretation-based exhibition, on Henrietta Street in Dublin’s North Inner City.

A joint initiative of Dublin City Council, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Irish Heritage Trust, the exhibition is open to the public for two months, until the end of August at No.14 Henrietta Street. The 35-minute drama element of the experience is performed by the award-winning ANU Productions.


Actors Bairdre Ni Aodha, Laura Murray, Lloyd Cooney and Eric O'Brien, pictured in a house in Dublin's Henrietta Street in Dublin's Inner City. They act out some scenes from tenement living in houses in Dublin North Inner City during the 1913 Lockout. (Photo:Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland).

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IBEC call protects wealthy at expense of less well off
 
LibertyHall

The attempt by IBEC to ensure that there will be no tax increases in the next budget is nothing more than a thinly camouflaged attempt to insulate the better off from tax commitments that are already scheduled, while inflicting more misery on the less well off.

IBEC is right in one respect. It is time to ease off on austerity. However, it is also time for the rich to contribute something.

The Government must not retreat from the commitments to abolish tax relief on pensions over €60,000 per annum. This would yield revenue of a quarter of a billion euro per year.

Other measures to generate a further quarter of a billion from the better off are also necessary in Budget 2014. Together with deployment of the billion euro afforded by the Promissory note deal, this would reduce the effect of the adjustment due in the next budget by 50%.

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NERI questions proposal for a €3 billion budget adjustment

The Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) has questioned the call in the latest medium-term review published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ERSI) for a budget adjustment of over €3 billion in this Autumn’s budget.

Responding to ERSI report which was published on 10th July, NERI Director Tom Healy, said: “Now is the time to ease back on the size of the consolidation and allow more breathing space for domestic demand to recover. Research by the NERI indicates that in the absence of a more timely and ambitious investment stimulus, there is a higher risk of missing the 3% budget target through large-scale fiscal consolidation such as that planned by the Government before the Promissory note deal in February of this year and suggested in the report from the ESRI”.
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GDP figures make clear crisis is far from over

Reacting to the publication by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of the Quarterly National Accounts, on Thursday (27th June), which showed that the Irish economy is in recession, SIPTU economist, Marie Sherlock, said it is clear that the crisis is far from over.

She said: “These results are a stark reminder of the fragility of the Irish recovery as a sharp fall in domestic demand, investment and in exports combined to ensure Irish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains stagnant and the economy remains in recession. The 0.6% seasonally adjusted drop is the third successive quarterly fall in GDP since the Irish economy went back into negative territory last summer.”
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Global Labour Column
 
Andreas Bieler
Andreas Bieler

Austerity and resistance: The politics of labour in the Eurozone crisis

Europe is haunted by austerity. Public sectors across the European Union (EU) have been cut back and working class gains from the post-war period seriously undermined. In this article, I will assess the causes of the crisis, its implications for workers and discuss the politics of labour in response to the Eurozone crisis.
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Can the Rehn-Meidner model be a guiding star for the EU countries like Ireland?

The NERI (Nevin Economic Research Institute) will hold a seminar on Wednesday, 17th July 2013 entitled “Can the Rehn-Meidner model be a guiding star for the EU countries like Ireland?”
 
The NERI seminar series aims to provide a forum for the presentation of research papers on topics of relevance to Irish public policy (North and South) and will take the format of a presentation of the research (25-30mins) followed by a questions and answers/discussion (30-40mins).
 
The seminars are open to all who are interested and are free to attend.
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The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival

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Claiming our Future - Budget Alternatives

ClaimOurFutureWide

Get involved: Register and spread the word for this Saturday's event!


Saturday, 13th of July, 11am – 3.30pm  

Budget Alternatives: Tax Justice and Employment

Hogan Mezzanine Suite, Croke Park Conference Centre, Dublin

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Fair Hotel

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Fair Hotels

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Larkin Credit Union


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The James Plunkett Short Story Award


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SIPTU Membership Services - Summer Offers from JLT

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SIPTU Basic English Scheme


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VHI Affordable Plans

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Supporting Quality

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