First spittle of class war is launched

WAS it the first skirmish of the impending class war? Maybe not, but workers’ fury, bosses arrogance and proletarian spittle were all in evidence at the Labour Court yesterday when Construction Industry Federation (CIF) director general Tom Parlon tangled with a gang of placard-wielding builders.

What happened remains a bone of contention, but Mr Parlon gave his version. Sure didn’t he have to clean the workers’ bile off his Bugatti jacket. Behind the incident he saw the hand of SIPTU “orchestrating” the “intimidation.”

No detective prizes for the former PD minister. The 15 or so dissatisfied, and largely unemployed, workers who chanted “no more pay cuts” and carried placards declaring “for sale the Galway tent,” wore SIPTU-embossed florescent safety jackets.