29 July 1999 Edition

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Johnnie be good

40 MANDATE workers strike for union recognition


BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

As Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats, the employers organisations and the trade union movement begin a series of public exchanges on what they expect from the new round of wage negotiations, a small dispute in a well known pub in the Dublin mountains shows how far there is to go to achieving real social partnership in the 26 Counties.

Today 40 MANDATE bar and catering staff at Johnnie Fox's pub enter their seventh week on the picket line. The strikers have many grievances, but chief among them is the failure of Johnnie Fox management to recognise their union.

The strikers also claim that the owners of Johnnie Fox's are in breach of the Working Time Act, the Health and Safety Act, the Protection of Employment Act, and the Protection of Young Persons Act.

They say workers were putting in 70-hour weeks at Johnnie Fox's, often racking up 14-hour days without proper breaks. There is also no first aid box in the pub, which is in a quite remote part of the Dublin Mountains.

Some of the workers in the pub were as young as 14 years of age and often worked until 1.30am even though they should not be working past 8pm.

They should also not work more than 35 hours a week but the strikers claim that this was regularly breached, as was the legal requirement that 14-year-olds only be given light work. The strikers' union representative, Mandy Kane, told An Phoblacht that the younger workers often completed long shifts which involved heavy work.

Kane also told us that staff who are supposed to be part-time workers are in reality working full time jobs yet they get no sick pay and have no pension entitlements. Some workers who are earning £4 an hour have been on the same wage for the past nine years.

The management at Johnnie Fox's have refused to negotiate with MANDATE. They also maintain that the rates they pay are the industry norm and deny employing teenagers as young as 14.

Councillor Seán Crowe, Sinn Féin's representative for Dublin South West, has highlighted the bullying and intimidation suffered by the strikers over the last six weeks on the picket line:

``Since the strike began, the workers have been threatened and bullied by sinister elements determined to break the strike. They have been fired upon by hooded men with imitation guns. They have received threats over the phone and have been spat on, all because they want to achieve their basic rights.

``This strike is about low pay, general improvements in working conditions and trade union recognition. Surely in this day and age this is not too much to ask. What is the point in having social partnership if workers have to go on strike to get basic rights like union recognition? Trade unionists and all like minded individuals should be supporting these young workers in direct opposition to bully boy tactics.''

Crowe also called on the people of Dublin and trade unionists to show their solidarity with the strikers by calling up and ``showing their support''.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland