Saturday, December 10, 2005
In the Irish news ...
Efforts to resolve the dispute at Irish Ferries are to continue over the weekend, following yesterday's "national day of protest" in which more than 100,000 people took part. The depth of public feeling about the matter was demonstrated by the high turnout at yesterday's protest marches in nine locations across the State.
The day of protest was called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to demonstrate solidarity with the workers at Irish Ferries and to highlight wider concerns about exploitation of migrant workers and the displacement of jobs.
In Dublin, tens of thousands took part in the biggest trade union demonstration since the first of the tax marches in 1979. Estimates of the turnout varied widely, however, with the Garda press office putting it at "in excess of 40,000" and ICTU at between 80,000 and 100,000. The discrepancy can partly be explained by the fact that not all those who marched from Parnell Square stayed on for the concluding rally at Merrion Square. Union leaders pointed to the fact that many non-participants stood to applaud as the march went by as evidence of huge public support for the event.
SIPTU is in dispute with the company over its plan to lay off up to 543 unionised seafarers and replace them with agency workers from abroad on a wage of €3.60 an hour. The dispute intensified last month when management moved to implement the plan by placing security personnel, disguised as passengers, on board two of its ships. A stand-off with ships' officers ensued and sailings of all four of the company's ships remained suspended yesterday as a result.ICTU (Irish Congress of Trade Unions) general secretary David Begg said the turnout at yesterday's marches provided an answer to those who claimed the trade union movement was finished.
The Irish Ferries dispute has been dominating the Irish news over the past 2 weeks or so. The Irish economy has been built on outsourcing and globalisation, and benefitted hugely from foreign companies relocating to Ireland and replacing their staff with Irish people at a cheaper cost. The IDA estimates that over 1050 overseas companies have chosen Ireland as their Eurpean base and are involved in a wide range of activities in sectors as diverse as e-Business, engineering, information & communications technologies, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, financial and international services. So it can seem a touch hypocritical to say that now that we are a high cost economy we are going to prevent Irish jobs being outsourced to other cheaper countries, and it can be argued that the real issue is trade unions fighting to increase their membership, which has been continuously falling in recent years. The new industries that provide the mainstay of the economy are by and large not unionised, and more importantly, their workers do not want to be unionised. There isn't the same need for the "job for life"protection that unions promised as there was 20 years ago, and workers are more confident in their ability to find an alternative job for themselves should the need arise.That said, I still have a big issue with what Irish Ferries are doing here. A national minimum wage was introduced in Ireland in April 2000. As of May 1st 2005, this stood at €7.65 an hour. What Irish Ferries are doing is pure exploitation. It is mainly Latvians and Lithuanians who they are hiring to replace Irish workers, and if they wanted to move the company to Latvia where earning €3.60 at a Latvian cost of living is a good wage, then fair enough, but this is a shipping company operating on the Irish sea with workers residing in Ireland. Registering their ships under a flag of convenience (Cyprus, if I'm not mistaken) to avoid having to adhere to Irish wage legislation is clearly unethical. Workers of whatever nationality resident in Ireland deserve the same wage protections as everyone else. At the current cost of living in Ireland, €7.65 an hour isn't heaps to start with, and €3.60 an hour is beyond a paltry sum to attempt to live off of. The fact that there was Eastern European workers willing to come here and work for that amount at the current cost of living in Ireland, just shows what little opportunity there is for them to do better at home, and Irish Ferries are taking advantage of that.
It amazes me how immigrants can even survive on the minimum wage in rip-off Ireland not to mention the wages of Irish Ferries.
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