A century on, another lockout

One hundred years ago, employers in Dublin engaged in a lockout of 20,000 workers.

All these workers wanted was a decent wage, decent working conditions and to be treated with dignity and respect. They were led by two brave men — James Connolly and Jim Larkin. The employers not only refused to recognise them but also refused to negotiate or even speak to them and to add insult to injury put locks on their place of employment.

Even though the workers lost the battle, in the long term they won the war: as today we have workers’ rights, better working conditions, and are treated with dignity and respect.

This also was the creation of the trade union movement, led by men with conviction and courage. Never again will employers lock workers out of their place of employment.

Or so we thought. It may seem of little significance compared to Dublin, but employers locking out their workers is still a lockout. What makes it deeply disturbing and hypocritical is when the employers are trade union leaders.

One hundred years later on a very wet Friday evening on May 18, 2012, at the Cork Council of Trade Unions (CCTU) Employment Resource Centre in North Main St in Cork, and with the full support of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), a locksmith installed a new lock, thereby locking out the voluntary workers of the centre.

These volunteers were made up of former staff, OAPs, people with disabilities, foreign nationals and unemployed. They had been operating a ‘work in’ for over 130 days, in an effort to keep the centre open to serve the unemployed people of Cork city and county. This disgraceful action by trade union leaders as employers of the centre insulted the memory of Larkin and Connolly.

Within those 130 days, the volunteers tried, on many occasions, to meet with the executive of the trade union council to offer a very viable rescue plan for the centre. Not only did they refuse to meet them, but refused to recognise them.

To date, the CCTU or ICTU has not explained its reasons for the lock-out.

While the Cork lock-out is despicable, it must also be very worrying and deeply concerning to true trade unionists and indeed to all who believe in democracy and peaceful protest.

I go my way with the words of Jim Larkin: “The men whose manhood you have broken will loathe you, and will always be brooding and scheming to strike a fresh blow.

“The fate of you, the aristocracy of industry, will be as the fate of the aristocracy of land if you do not show that you have some humanity still among you.”

Willie Fitzpatrick

Pouladuff Road

Cork