|
|
|
|
Vita Cortex workers protesting outside the Cork offices of employers' group IBEC on Thursday (16th February).
|
|
Vita Cortex workers protest at IBEC offices in Cork
The Vita Cortex workers, on their 62nd day of a sit-in over unpaid redundancy entitlements, protested outside the offices of Irish Business and Employer’s Confederation (IBEC) on Douglas Road in Cork on Thursday (16th February).
The workers organised the protest over what, they believe, is the failure of IBEC to use its influence to get their former employer, Jack Ronan, to pay the 0.9 weeks in outstanding redundancy payments owed to them.
Read more >
|
|
|
Campaign to protect construction workers' livelihoods
A nationwide campaign to resist an attempt by the Construction Industry Federation to slash workers’ wages by up to 40% and down to the level of the minimum wage will begin within days.
The campaign, which will include general meetings on building sites across the country, will be co-coordinated by a sub-group of the Construction Industry Committee of Congress (CICC) involving representatives drawn from all unions in the industry, including SIPTU, BATU, Unite, TEEU, UCCAT and OPATSI.
Read more >
SIPTU to meet with Balfour Beatty CLG Limited over proposed redundancies
SIPTU representatives will meet with management at Balfour Beatty CLG Limited on Monday (20th February) following the announcement that the company intends to restructure the business with the possibility of up to 76 job losses.
SIPTU Organiser, John Regan said; “The announcement by Balfour Beatty CLG Limited that it is seeking redundancies as part of a major restructuring of the company is extremely disappointing. SIPTU is already in a process of constructive engagement with the company and everything will be done to eliminate or reduce the number of proposed redundancies.”
Read more >
Privatisation could ‘turn ESB into another Eircom’
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has strongly criticised proposals to sell off State assets saying it “threatens to transform companies like the ESB or Bord Gais into another Eircom.
”Speaking after a meeting of the Congress Executive Council, General Secretary David Begg said: “Selling state assets will cost jobs and see Ireland lose control over crucial areas of the economy. It’s threatens a rerun of the Eircom fiasco.
Read more >
SIPTU Community Campaign joins S.P.A.R.K. to support lone parents
The SIPTU Community Campaign joined S.P.A.R.K. at a launch on Thursday (16th February) to highlight the effect of Budget 2012 on lone parents.
The S.P.A.R.K. Campaign (Single Parents Acting for the Right of Kids) is a diverse group of lone parents who have united to protect children from the effects of Budget 2012. Among the wide range of organisations supporting the S.P.A.R.K. Campaign is the SIPTU Community Campaign, OPEN, One Parent and Treoir.
Read more >
SIPTU Vice-President tells Oireachtas committee that removal of JLC system has created no extra jobs
Research carried out by SIPTU has discredited claims by employers’ organisations that the abolition of the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) wage-setting mechanism has resulted in the creation of extra jobs.
Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education on Tuesday (14th February) SIPTU Vice President, Patricia King, said that research carried out by the SIPTU established that no extra catering and hotel jobs have been created since a July 2011 High Court decision suspended the operation of the JLC system. The research was carried out over a three month period following the High Court ruling.
Read more >
Disruption to Tesco likely as distributor strike looms
SIPTU members driving for the British based distribution company, Eddie Stobart, have voted for strike action to highlight a number of grievances over their working conditions.
The industrial action by the Eddie Stobart drivers will, most likely, disrupt the business of the Tesco retail chain, said SIPTU Sector Organiser, Karan O’Loughlin.
Read more >
SIPTU members at RehabGroup protest over its failure to implement Labour Court rulings
SIPTU members held a protest at the headquarters of the RehabGroup in Sandymount, Dublin on Monday (13th February) to highlight the failure of the company to honour two outstanding Labour Court recommendations. SIPTU Sector Organiser, Louise O’Reilly, said that the Labour Court has determined that staff at the company are owed money dating back several years.
Read more >
Bord na Móna workers to ballot on industrial action
The Bord na Móna group of unions will ballot members on industrial action later in February due to the refusal of management at the semi-state company to honour pay increases due to workers under the Towards 2016 transitional agreement.
Read more >
|
|
|
Public Accounts Committee hearing on ‘Skills Fund’ postponed
 A meeting of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 1st March to discuss issues surrounding the Skills Training Programme Fund (known as the ‘Skills Fund’) administered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and at which SIPTU was due to attend, has been postponed.
The PAC has decided to postpone the hearing following the decision by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), John Buckley, to continue his audit into the ‘Skills Fund’ including details of the ‘SIPTU Health and Local Authority Levy Fund’ (known as the ‘Levy Fund’ account) through which a portion of the grants from the Skills Fund were distributed. The Skills Programme was used to up-skill thousands of mainly low paid workers in the health and local authority sectors across the country.
Read more >
|
|
|
|
|
SIPTU welcomes jobs plan which will be judged on results
SIPTU has welcomed the launch on Monday (13th February) of the Government’s multi-annual jobs plan but cautioned that it’s success can only be judged in terms of the extent to which it revives the domestic economy and creates employment opportunities in Ireland.
SIPTU economist, Marie Sherlock, said; “We welcome the establishment of a partial credit guarantee, a micro finance fund, a capital development fund and the other initiatives outlined in the plan that are aimed at sustaining existing companies and assisting start-up firms.”
Read more >
Jack O’Connor describes Finance Bill as ‘deeply disappointing and a lost opportunity’
SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, has described the Finance Bill published on Wednesday (8th February) as “deeply disappointing and a lost opportunity”. The supports to new starts ups, to indigenous exporters, to FDI, to the international financial services industry and to R&D activities in SME’s may well provide a boost to all these sectors, but the impacts are likely to be very small in scale and are narrowly targeted, he said.
Read more >
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Global Labour Column
According to this week’s contributor, on average, the world’s top 1% in the income distribution saw a threefold increase in incomes between 1970 and 2008, yet the salaries of the bottom 90% remained stagnant.
Read more >
Dutch Embassy Protest
 Anna Amelia Pimentel presenting a letter to a representative of the Dutch Ambassador on Tuesday (14th February). (Photo by Eira Gallagher).
A delegation of contract cleaners from SIPTU’s Fair Deal for Cleaners Campaign and workers from the Communication Workers' Union gathered outside of the Dutch Embassy in Dublin on Tuesday (14th February) in support of striking cleaners in the Netherlands. Thousands of Dutch cleaners have been on strike for more than 30 days in pursuit of fair working conditions and decent pay.
Read more >
Cuban Five supporter Cindy Sheehan visits Ireland
Cindy Sheehan will speak in Liberty Hall at 6.00 p.m. on Thursday 8th March - International Women's Day
Peace Activist to meet peace prize winners Hume and McGuire
Peace Mom and author Cindy Sheehan (54) visits Ireland from 4th - 8th March to highlight the case of the Cuban Five and support the work of the Irish campaign to free them. She will meet two of Ireland’s Nobel Peace Prize winners, Mairead McGuire and John Hume, to up-date them on the situation of the five men who were involved in actions to bring about peace between their country, Cuba, and the US.
Read more >
Haïti Solidarity Ireland
Read more >
ETUI Job Vacancies
The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) is seeking to recruit:
a Senior researcher on multinational corporations
and
a researcher in industrial relations/collective bargaining
You can find the full text of the job vacancies on the ETUI website.
The deadline to apply is 11 March 2012.
Please feel free to forward this information to any person who might be interested.
The ETUI is financially supported by the European Union. ETUI, aisbl 2012
Read more >
Motor bikes, buses and boats – new ITF Co-ordinator Ken Fleming has done it all
The new ITF Co-ordinator for Britain and Ireland Ken Fleming is a Dubliner, born and bred, from a strong trade union background. His father Jack was President of the Dublin Bus Branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, became Number One Executive Driver with Bus Eireann and drove the Apollo 8 Astronauts when they visited Ireland as part of President Kennedy’s entourage in 1963.
Read more >
JLT Home Insurance
Read more >
Filipino Human Rights Lawyer to Address Liberty Hall Meeting
 Filipino human rights lawyer, Edre Olalia, will address a meeting in Room 207, Liberty Hall at 7.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 28th February. He will provide an up-date on the current political and human rights situation in the Philippines including an account of his efforts to establish the whereabouts of two students who were abducted by security forces over five years ago and to bring their kidnappers to justice.
Read more >
Irish Penal Reform Trust Concert
Read more >
Whites Hotel Wexford
Read more >
Trade Union Rights in Mexico
Last year more than 50,000 union members, students and human rights activists from some 40 countries participated in the Global Days of Action, launched on February 14 in Mexico and Australia simultaneously. For six days union members came together in an unprecedented show of solidarity. Thousands of letters were sent to the Mexican government, more than 50 meetings were held at Mexican Embassies throughout the world, and massive demonstrations throughout the week, inside and outside of Mexico, marked the strength and urgency of our message: STOP the attack on workers, we demand Trade Union Rights in Mexico, NOW!
Read more >
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
