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25 June 1998 Edition

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Workers in struggle

Gardai must make a choice



     
Gardai who have regularly intervened on picket lines to uphold unjust industrial relations laws showed that the same law does not apply to them
Everyone knows that all workers are not the same. There are underpaid workers, overpaid and pampered management who are in essence workers too. There are workers discriminated by gender, ethnicity, social background and age. There are workers whose job security and working conditions are deliberately constructed to be used as a bulwark for preserving an inequitable status quo, whether it be in a shipyard in Belfast or a mine in South Africa.

Then there are police forces, workers who are in a unique position. In the past weeks, the Gardai Siochana have been presenting themselves as struggling workers. They claim to be underpaid but were unable to strike because of legal constraints. Then came the blue flu.

The Gardai, guardians of the law, were engaging in illegal acts. Gardai who have regularly intervened on picket lines to uphold unjust industrial relations laws showed that the same law does not apply to them. Little or no loss of earnings were suffered by the Gardai's two one day stoppages. Taxpayers have funded these escapades. The reason why is simple - because the GRA is not a union.

Garda Representative Association spokesperson Tony Hand spoke to An Phoblacht explaining that they did not sign up for Partnership 2000 and that it was Association policy to seek full trade union status. The ICTU said that they ``would not have a major problem'' with the Gardai becoming a fully fledged union . Currently the Gardai are considered an essential service and are legally prevented from taking industrial action.

However the Gardai will have to take some hard choices if they really want to become a trade union. For example the GRA and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) hold a unique position in Irish industrial relations. They are openly subsidised and funded by government, and hence by the taxpayer even though they raise subscriptions from their members.

The 1996 report of the Auditor and Comptroller General shows that the GRA received substantial funds from the exchequer. £24,796 was paid in post and telecommunications bills, £98,601 was handed over for accommodation costs while a further £41,905 was paid in remuneration to GRA officials on special leave.

In 1995 a interest free loan of £90,880 was approved to four members of the GRA Central Committee to cover their legal costs while in dispute with the GRA itself.

A national union official told An Phoblacht that such conditions did not exist for mainstream unions. It would be, he said, ``unusual for unions to get it and it puts a question mark over their independence''. An ICTU spokesperson conceded that such payments are ``unusual''.

This week Gardai from Store Street station were on duty at a picket line in Dublin (see side column) They were there to enforce industrial relations law, laws which they were technically in breach of less than two weeks previously.

If the GRA want, as spokesperson Tony Hand claimed, ``full trade union status'' they have some way to go. Step one is ending their dependency on government money. Step two is recognising the rights of other workers and how they enforce the law on those workers.

The GRA is at the crossroads. Have they now the ability to step away from being the enforcers of an unjust status quo and instead use their unique status for all workers not just for their own self interest?


Brickies strike enters fifth week



Bricklayers from the Building and Allied Trades Union have entered their fifth week on the picket line in Dublin City. The 42 bricklayers all working on Zoe Development sites are protesting at low wages in the company. Bricklayers rates are, according to a BATU striker, ``considerably lower than what is paid for comparable work elsewhere in Dublin city''.

The BATU strikers also complain that when some of their members were taken off C45 contracts and given proper PAYE status, Zoe deducted some of the employer costs of PAYE and PRSI from the workers' wage packets.

Their pickets have brought some of Zoe's site to a complete halt. This week Gardai have policed some of the picket lines to ensure that strikers do not block deliveries to sites.

As An Phoblacht went to print discussions were ongoing between Zoe and the strikers.

PD Harney wags the dog



     
The long-term unemployed are paying for the recent corruption scandals in Fianna Fáil
``We need a system that gives better value to the taxpayer and a better service to those who are unemployed''. These were the words of PD leader and Enterprise and Employment minister Mary Harney. Harney has proposed that unemployed people who refuse offers of work, training or participation in work experience schemes will have their social welfare payments cut from September.

Employers group IBEC thought that Harney's comments were ``refreshing and realistic''. Fine Gael also welcomed the proposals. However it was Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) general secretary Mike Allen who put Harney's plan in context.

He told An Phoblacht that the real debate should be on the options outlined by Harney. ``Are they any good, and where are the resources coming from? He argued that ``the long-term unemployed are paying for the recent corruption scandals in Fianna Fáil''.

So far Fianna Fáil have remained fairly silent on Harney's proposals. It seems that the Progressive Democrats are using Fianna Fáil's current difficulties to stamp their right wing agenda on government policy. The tail is once again wagging the dog.


Ryanair's wheelchair profits



You have to hand it to Ryanair. In the last two weeks they have taken out full page ads in Irish newspapers telling us of their great profitability - £37.1 million for the 12 months to March 1998 and their plans to expand their low cost, low frills airline service to even more destinations. Hot on the heels of the multi-million profits came the news that the Ryanair board are to cash in some of their shares.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary, who led his company's campaign against unionisation of their low paid baggage handlers, stands to profit by £9.8 million. O'Leary's shareholding is now worth almost £115 million. The Ryan family holding is worth a meagre £269 million.

This week a Belfast pensioner became a net contributor to the Ryanair fortunes when he had to pay £8 for the use of a wheelchair at Dublin airport. The man, recovering from multiple fractures, was charged for the chair despite the fact that a number of other airlines at the airport do not charge for wheelchairs. It is a case of pass the sick bag Michael, or is there a charge on that too?

An Phoblacht
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Dublin 1
Ireland