SIPTU takes recognition battle online

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Monday August 01, 2005 15:57 by by email, from Liberty Hall

Workers at Gerard Labs, a German-owned pharmaceutical plant in north Dublin, have been campaigning for union rights over the last 12 months. Approximately a third of the manufacturing workforce are members of SIPTU, and it's clear that most of the rest would join up if they felt that their choice to be represented would be respected. The owners of the plant, Merck KGaA, negotiate with unions in respect of 81% of their global workfoce, and boast about it in their Corporate Responsibility report.

The workers' campaign has now gone online. Their campaign website, at www.labourstart.org/merck, allows visitors to send e-mails to the German HR director, asking them to explain why he won't enter into talks with SIPTU. The director Jan Sombroek, regularly consults with European Works Council representatives and German trade union representatives, but has refused to reply to correspondence from SIPTU.

Merck lost a Labour Court case earlier this year and were forced to increase pay and introduce a sick pay scheme under recent right-to-bargain legislation. Despite this, and despite a change of managing director, Gerard Labs continue to refuse to discuss holding a fair ballot or other procedure to ascertain the view of its workforce once and for all.