12 March 1998 Edition
Workers in struggle: Why TEAM sell off is wrong
Airports throughout the world are often symbolic of the country or region you're visiting. Dublin airport is no exception. The ongoing expansion and building around Dublin Airport would show any traveller clear evidence that some of the Tiger hype was maybe true.
As you queue for access to the Dublin road you cannot help but notice the vastness of one of Dublin's largest buildings - the TEAM Aer hangars. Barely 11 years old they are a testament to the role that a dynamic public sector company can play in the Irish economy.
TEAM's 11 years have been chequered but none of its darker days can match the current proposal to buy workers out of their right to a public sector job. £37 million of taxpayers' money is earmarked to pay 1,500 workers to release Aer Lingus from any contractual obligations to provide jobs for the workers who were transferred to TEAM when the company was originally set up in the 1980s.
Now they stand to get an average of £18,300 each to work for TEAM's new private sector owners, Dutch company FLS. What is more bizarre is the £37 million being paid to workers is more that FLS are to pay for the company. If this is the case, why will the TEAM workers not make a bid for control of their own company?
The only other path they face now is privatisation and redundancies and possibly worsening working conditions. If there are profits to be made surely an empowered workforce who were their own masters would be in a position to benefit from this than selling out for a short-term payoff. It is not only their own futures that TEAM workers are putting up for sale this week but also a resource that technically belongs to all the people.
``The biggest overhaul of employment legislation in nearly a decade'' was the promise made by Mo Mowlam yesterday in response to the recent report on fair employment by the Standing Advisory Committee on Human Rights (SACHR). Mowlam claimed that in response to the report Labour will implement new fair employment legislation as part fulfillment of their election pledge to ``promote equality of opportunity''.
Sinn Féin's national Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin, responding to the report, said ``Sinn Féin will study the British Government's response very carefully. Disappointing experience has taught us there is a crucial difference between good intentions and effective action to eradicate discrimination.
McLaughlin asked ``Will this British Government now set goals and timetables for the reduction of the Catholic-Protestant unemployment differential, which it argued for whilst in opposition.
``There must be a co-ordinated and integrated strategy involving legislation, social and economic policies....Change must be sustainable. These are the criteria by which the British Government response to the SACHR report needs to be judged''.
Telecom Eireann workers are set to take a 15% stake in the company as negotiations with unions on the sale of the stake reach a conclusion this week. If the deal is agreed it will be the biggest ever sale of a state asset to employees in Ireland.
While it would be more preferable that the company remain in public ownership the sale of a significant share to its workers puts them in a powerful position to play a positive role in a company that is being forced into the private sector.
The share sale is being organised through a two tier process. Five percent is being given to workers in exchange for changes in work practices. A further 9.9% is being sold to workers for £185 million, valuing the company at nearly £2 billion.
If it seems strange that workers are being asked to pay for shares in a company whose wealth they help create, consider also that they are also being asked to pay double the price paid by KPN/Telia in 1996. They got 20% of Telecom for £183 million.
As you queue for access to the Dublin road you cannot help but notice the vastness of one of Dublin's largest buildings - the TEAM Aer hangars. Barely 11 years old they are a testament to the role that a dynamic public sector company can play in the Irish economy.
TEAM's 11 years have been chequered but none of its darker days can match the current proposal to buy workers out of their right to a public sector job. £37 million of taxpayers' money is earmarked to pay 1,500 workers to release Aer Lingus from any contractual obligations to provide jobs for the workers who were transferred to TEAM when the company was originally set up in the 1980s.
Now they stand to get an average of £18,300 each to work for TEAM's new private sector owners, Dutch company FLS. What is more bizarre is the £37 million being paid to workers is more that FLS are to pay for the company. If this is the case, why will the TEAM workers not make a bid for control of their own company?
The only other path they face now is privatisation and redundancies and possibly worsening working conditions. If there are profits to be made surely an empowered workforce who were their own masters would be in a position to benefit from this than selling out for a short-term payoff. It is not only their own futures that TEAM workers are putting up for sale this week but also a resource that technically belongs to all the people.
Mowlam promises ``equality of opportunity''
``The biggest overhaul of employment legislation in nearly a decade'' was the promise made by Mo Mowlam yesterday in response to the recent report on fair employment by the Standing Advisory Committee on Human Rights (SACHR). Mowlam claimed that in response to the report Labour will implement new fair employment legislation as part fulfillment of their election pledge to ``promote equality of opportunity''.
Sinn Féin's national Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin, responding to the report, said ``Sinn Féin will study the British Government's response very carefully. Disappointing experience has taught us there is a crucial difference between good intentions and effective action to eradicate discrimination.
McLaughlin asked ``Will this British Government now set goals and timetables for the reduction of the Catholic-Protestant unemployment differential, which it argued for whilst in opposition.
``There must be a co-ordinated and integrated strategy involving legislation, social and economic policies....Change must be sustainable. These are the criteria by which the British Government response to the SACHR report needs to be judged''.
15% Telecom share for workers
Telecom Eireann workers are set to take a 15% stake in the company as negotiations with unions on the sale of the stake reach a conclusion this week. If the deal is agreed it will be the biggest ever sale of a state asset to employees in Ireland.
While it would be more preferable that the company remain in public ownership the sale of a significant share to its workers puts them in a powerful position to play a positive role in a company that is being forced into the private sector.
The share sale is being organised through a two tier process. Five percent is being given to workers in exchange for changes in work practices. A further 9.9% is being sold to workers for £185 million, valuing the company at nearly £2 billion.
If it seems strange that workers are being asked to pay for shares in a company whose wealth they help create, consider also that they are also being asked to pay double the price paid by KPN/Telia in 1996. They got 20% of Telecom for £183 million.