Unions urge support for march against ferry redundancies

Four of the country’s most senior trade union leaders united today to urge support for a protest against redundancies at Irish Ferries.

The men called for people to join Thursday’s march from Liberty Hall to Leinster House to show their disgust at the growing displacement of unionised labour by vulnerable migrant workers.

SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor said there was a widespread dumbing down of pay and conditions by employers.

“These conditions are becoming prevalent not just in sectors such as catering and cleaning, but others such as office administration, not normally associated with low skilled and low paid activity,” he said.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions President Peter McLoone, who is also general secretary of IMPACT, said many workers fortunate to be in secure employment would face the same threat down the road if displacement went unchallenged.

“What is happening is a concern for all workers, all citizens, all consumers,” he said.

“What is happening poses stark choices about the sort of society we want. One where all of our people are valued equally or the rights of some can be ignored in order to cut a few euro off the price of a ticket and provide millions extra in profit to a privileged few.

“We cannot allow the tactics of companies such as Irish Ferries to dictate economic and social policy.”

ICTU General Secretary David Begg said the ramifications of what was happening extended beyond Ireland.

If the proposed Services Directive of the European Commission went through in its current form it would have disastrous effects, he said, pointing to the example of a Polish labour contracting agency offering workers for hire at between 4 and 7 an hour.

“We have to elevate the issue of job displacement to the top of the political agenda so that people do not sleepwalk into this nightmare,” he said.

Dublin Council of Trade Unions President Arthur Hall said the reason Irish workers found themselves in this situation was lack of adequate employment legislation by the Government and a failure to enforce existing laws.

Management and workers at the successful ferry firm have been locked in a long-running dispute over the company’s plan to lay off almost 550 staff on its Irish Sea routes and replace them with cheaper foreign staff.