Supporting the Electricians Strike

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Wednesday July 08, 2009 17:34

by A

Electricians go on strike in response to a two year employer strike on pay. Since 2007 (roaring property boom) employers have been witholding pay that is legally due to electricians. They are now looking for a 10 per cent pay cut. Employers and unions came to an agreement, the employers broke the agreement, they now refuse to negotiate and are looking for a collective 10 per cent pay cut.

TEEU

Electricians are entering into a third day of industrial action. It looks likely the Irish Congress of Trade Union (ICTU) will give their backing to the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union call (TEEU) for an all out picket. Pickets have been in place at construction sites on Infirmary road, Lansdowne road, Corrib gas field, Dublin Docklands and Dublin Airport.

Pay rates are set by joint industrial councils and binded through a 'Registered Employment Agreement' (REA). The last REA for electricians was in 2007, where employers agreed to a 4.9 per cent pay increase. After this agreement one of the large sub contractors Association of Electrical Contractors in Ireland (AECI) and Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), who initially signed up, pulled out of the agreement. They broke the contract. They then tried to hold up the process and cancel in the Labour Court. The economic recession hit, and the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), who represent over 50 employer groups, began to support the call for a 10 per cent pay cut.

Like any calculated negotiator, the TEEU responded by calling for a pay rise of 5 per cent. The debate has now been framed 'Unions want 11 per cent pay increase', whilst the poor employers, who can’t afford to pay, need a 10 per cent pay cut'. The reality is the opportunist employers are tearing up legal agreements, a precedent that would have huge effects upon every worker in the country.

Part of the thinking, arguably, behind the employer’s strategy is to move away from the joint industrial system, and to move toward a decentralised pay bargaining system. A free market model. In the good times employers want centralised wage restraint because they know at a local level they will have to pay more. In bad times they want a local bargaining system because they can pay less. By tearing up procedural processes that ensure workers rights are respected they can maintain a 'race to the bottom'.

The contractors that the TEEU are targeting are based in companies (Diageo, Cadbury's and INTEL) not directly party to the CIF. This is why the TEEU is attempting to picket these companies. Some have responded by putting workers on protective notice (making their job security uncertain and less likely to support a strike, and more likely to pass a picket).

Employers (and much of the media) have been arguing that pay cuts are occurring right across the private sector. There has been no detailed evidence to support this. The only research done (Industrial relations news) found the opposite. They found that many profitable private sector companies are actually paying the agreed increases under the social partnership agreement: towards 2016.

Tom Parlon has described Trade Union leaders as 'lunatics'. Their lunacy is demanding that employers respect a legally agreed contract, and that they return to negotiations to find a resolution. Meanwhile FF senators have described the rational response by the Unions as potentially causing more damage to the economy than the banking crisis. This is the banking crisis that was caused by reckless lending to scrupulous property developers, and facilitated by Fianna Fail through tax cuts, fuelling a property bubble that resulted in our current recession.

This is a struggle for social and economic justice, and necessitates the solidarity of all workers and citizens across Ireland.

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Comments (4 of 4)

by SP-Online

Sun Jul 12, 2009 20:14

interview with SP member Ray McLoughlin on the electrician's dispute. Ray is a member of the TEEU Executive Committee, speaking in a personal capacity here.

Caption: Video Id: wgyUnnCYOxQ Type: Youtube Video
Embedded video Youtube Video

race to the bottom

by polly - none

Sun Jul 12, 2009 16:46

employers would have us all back to the times of the lockout
if they could manage it! What with BONDED slavery in the
Gamma construction company, migrant workers whipped and beaten by cruel farmers, foreign nationals working in the fishing
industry being kept so many miles out at sea in order to ensure
thay had no worker protection rights (irish government supplied
visas only if the workers were kept at sea) young people entitled
to no dole if they reside at home with their parents. Then we have
the elite who pay no taxes because they are SPECIAL!
66 million euro a year lost in revenue as a result of exemption
from tax for BONO, CECILA AHEARN, AMY HUBERMAN and
a rake more of them! Yet a young person pays tax on 350 euro
wages! I hope the electricians win their case and show the
government and the jackboot bossmen that they cannot walk
on the rights of the workers!

Suppport the Electricians

by PBPA - People Before Profit Alliance

Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:56

press at peoplebeforeprofit dot ie

0876775468

Press Release: 07/07/09
The People Before Profit Alliance today called for full support and solidarity with striking electricians.

In a joint statement PBPA councillors, Joan Collins, Brid Smith, Richard Boyd Barrett, Hugh Lewis and Gino Kenny, saluted the TEEU for taking a strong stand in defence of workers rights.

Cllr Collins said “Employers and the government are using the recession to dismantle the hard won rights of workers. This strike is about the right to decent pay but it is also about the right of a union to negotiate on behalf of its member. Employers want to dismantle the Registered Agreement so that they can slash workers wages and start a race to the bottom throughout the construction industry”

Cllr Boyd Barrett said “In recent months workers have seen they wages cut right across the economy. Wage cuts and tax hikes have become the norm. It’s about time that somebody said stop. These electricians did not create the recession. They are being asked to suffer the consequences for the greed of builders and developers. It makes no sense to be cutting wages at a time when we need to stimulate demand in the economy”.

The councillors called on all workers to show their solidarity with striking electricians by respecting their pickets. They called on ICTU and trade councils throughout the country to organise public demonstrations in support of the TEEU.

ENDS
For more information contact Eddie Conlon 087 6775468
http://www.peoplebeforeprofit.ie

Update

Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:20

LRC talks adjourned:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0709/...1.htm

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Supporting the Electricians Strike

Comments (4 of 4)