Irish Ferries - The nuclear option

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Monday December 12, 2005 21:22

by Panzram - Socialist Collective

Irish Ferries workers stand firm

Irish Ferries management has played its trump card, the treat to withdraw the “generous” redundancy packages offered. Irish Ferries workers are made of sterner stuff and will face down management even if this leads to the demise of Irish Ferries.

Irish Ferries management have played their trump card, the treat to cut or withdraw the “generous” redundancy packages forced on the workers as compensation for the destruction of the jobs and their way of life. Rothwell and his cronies initially believed that these “forty pieces of silver” would cause the loyal seamen of Ireland to betray their shipmates. They have of course now found that the Irish working man or woman is made of more heroic stuff. They are not interested in the blood money of management offered over the death of their jobs and the sweat of the immigrant labour. The bosses could have offered ten times their blackmail and the seamen would have stood fast.

The management is now truly rattled and sees that the only hope of saving their skins and the hundreds of millions in stock option that they own is to try to divide the workers against each other. Management think that if they can split the small section of workers who have genuinely accepted the “blood money”, perhaps through naiveté or fear, then they can still prevail. This shows again how little the management in their pampered ignorance knows of real workers.

Irish ferries workers are true heroes who like the Rossport Five are willing to lose everything to stand up for what they believe in. I believe that the Irish Ferries workers will, supported stoutly by SIPTU and its officals, inevitably defeat the management and bring about the destruction of the nefarious Irish Ferries company. The workers know what the consequences of this will be for them and are willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy Irish ferries and to help save the rest of Ireland’s working people. Only with the destruction of Irish Ferries can the working person in Ireland see that capitalism is dead and it must be replaced by a new and vibrant democratic workers socialist collective republic.