Gama protest - Unions must get behind workers

The sight of workers protesting about pay or conditions in Dublin’s O’Connell Street is hardly a rare sight, although it is one that has become infrequent in recent years.

However, the one that occurred yesterday was extraordinary because it was a protest by almost 400 Turkish workers about a Turkish company.

The Gama construction company has made the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons and the Government has frozen its work permits.

The company has obtained a High Court injunction against the publication of a Government report on its employment practices.

While further High Court proceedings are pending, Gama’s workers felt compelled to establish a representative group called the Turkish Workers Action Group (TWAG).

This development, and yesterday’s protest march, stemmed from serious allegations which Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins made in the Dáil about the company in relation to low pay and conditions.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has begun an investigation into those claims.

Mr Higgins was last week instrumental in uncovering accounts held for the workers in a Dutch bank, of which they were totally unaware.

Yesterday’s protest was held amidst other allegations that workers at a site in Ballymun and another one at Tynagh, near Galway, were discouraged from attending it by the company. The latter is the site of a new power station for the ESB and because the 400 Turkish workers there could not travel to Dublin, TWAG will today hold a protest at Tynagh.

Since its arrival in Ireland, Gama has proven remarkably successful in winning Government contracts which have proven highly profitable.

However, it is now the subject of allegations of paying well below the Irish minimum wage.

This week’s protests by the Turkish workers are being held to demand that Gama inform all its workers of how much money has been deposited by it in the Netherlands in their names.

Turkey would not have a strong tradition of trade unions, so the Gama workers should be supported and encouraged by their colleagues in the broader Irish trade union movement.