GAMA update

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release

Tuesday May 24, 2005 18:08

by Turkish Workers’ Action Group

Striking workers unanimously reject proposal that many workers be dispersed to Galway and Clare due to heavy intimidation that would ensue;

Workers on strike demand immediate structures be put in place to assess unpaid overtime.

At a meeting in Liberty Hall today striking GAMA workers unanimously rejected the proposal of the company that some of the workers on strike should disperse to sites in Galway and Ennis in order to get back to work. The fact is that workers who originally came from those sites experienced heavy intimidation until they left to join colleagues in the Balgaddy and Ballymun sites in Dublin. GAMA’s strategy is to disperse the workers who have highlighted the huge exploitation they suffered as widely as possible and into conditions where even their safety could be threatened and they would be left with no option but to return to Turkey.

Intimidation at Tynagh Power Station Site:

On April 3rd last, nine workers who had attended a meeting in Dublin to coordinate their protest in pursuit of their wages, which were then in Finansbank Holland, and in pursuit of their unpaid overtime were physically pushed out of the site by GAMA foremen on their return. They were forced out onto the deserted country road and kept there for several hours. Even the intervention of the Gardaí would not persuade the Tynagh site management to allow the workers back into their accommodation, which was on site. The workers were obliged to go to a guesthouse in the early hours of the morning. Next morning when they returned to the site for work, they were refused entry. These workers were intimidated and summarily sacked for their trade union activities.

Intimidation on the Ennis By-pass Site:

Forty workers who had gone on strike on the site of the Ennis By-pass being constructed by Clare County Council also experienced heavy harassment and intimidation by management while they continued to live on site. Eventually, they came to join their colleagues who were on strike in Dublin.

There is ample work for all 85 workers currently on strike on the Dublin sites. This is quite clear from the fact that over 200 workers who had been on strike, the bulk of them from the Dublin sites, have returned to Turkey. The fact that GAMA is refusing to place all the workers on the Dublin sites so that they can resume work is a deliberate tactic to frustrate the campaign for payment of the huge amount of overtime that workers are due.

Assessment of Unpaid Overtime:

GAMA workers on strike now require immediate structures to be put in place to assess the huge amount of unpaid overtime that they are owed by the company. Some workers have already given evidence of this to the Labour Inspectors, but a group of assessors would be necessary to process the cases of all the workers. The workers are demanding that this assessment is immediately carried out by the relevant industrial relations or state agency and that a quick determination is made.

Last week when the GAMA Workers’ Committee met the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michéal Martin they impressed on him the urgency for immediate action. They now renew their call on the Minister and the Government to ensure that a process is put in place and an assessment made within days, considering that they are now into their eight week of strike. It has not gone unnoticed by the workers on dispute that the Government and the State have facilitated GAMA in many respects in its operation here, but their plight has not been dealt with as expeditiously.