Element Six: 400 brave the elements

DESPITE rain last Thursday (20 August), 400 people took part in a lunchtime protest to save 163 jobs at the Element Six diamond maker’s plant.
Marchers paraded through the Shannon Industrial Estate, carrying banners and placards calling on the company to stop threatening employees and company pensioners “and engage with workers’ representatives in a reasonable and respectful manner”.
The marchers called for fairness and equality and fair play for the workers, present and past, who made millions in profits for this multinational subsidiary of de Beers Diamonds and continue to do so.
Employees – who included management, retired members, former staff and non-union employees, along with Unite, TEEU and SIPTU members and officials – were joined by some prominent local politicians.

SIPTU serves strike notice on Coca Cola

SIPTU has served strike notice on Coca-Cola HBC (Bottlers) Ireland Limited following a decision by the company to transfer and outsource the jobs of 130 union members to third-party operators.
This follows a meeting last week (19 August) in the Labour Relations Commission at which the company said it would only discuss its plan for redundancies and outsourcing of jobs. Coca-Cola HBC management refused to discuss an alternative proposal made by SIPTU representatives who offered to negotiate on new terms and conditions, including an acceptable redundancy package for workers.
Gerry McCormack, National Industrial Secretary of SIPTU said:
“Some members have 40 years’ service and we have always enjoyed good relations with the company. However, a new management has now trampled on many years of partnership and co-operation in what was considered a flagship operation in Ireland.”

200 UPS jobs lost in Tallaght

INTERNATIONAL delivery company UPS is to shed 200 jobs at its call-centre in Tallaght, County Dublin, depot from October to May.
The company claims it cannot find enough staff in Ireland with multilingual skills to run its operation.
The non-union workforce was given the news last Friday.