Workers Power/L5i Statement on Irish Ferries Compromise

by SP member - SP Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:28

You kept your criticisms of the SP quiet at last Mondays meeting.

by pat c Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:18

Andy

i think the role that was played by the SUI in sabotaging this strike is being understated. at a cusp period in the negotiations the SUI started arranging petitions in support of the redundancy deal. basically they just wanted their money and didnt care about the workers who wished to remain or the Latvian workers. they even sent a letter to Irish Ferries Management supporting the management position. These actions by the SUI amounted to scabbing and crossing class lines.

It wasnt the ICTU or SIPTU burocracy who put a gun to the head of the SIPTU negotiators it was the SUI. That doesnt mean I have any illusions in the burocracy. In the past the burocrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory during the Ryanair strike. Both the SIPTU and ICTU leadership could have and should have called for a General Strike and the breaking of reactionary laws against secondary strike action.

This deal is not a victory but it is not a total deafeat. This partial victory was acheived through the unoffical action taken by the ships officers in seizing the control room and by the secondary action by port workers who turned ferries away.

I say it is a partial victory because the Latvian workers have got a 120% increase in pay; they also have gained a months paid leave for every 2 months they work, previously they were not going to get any paid leave. It was the action of the ships officers that acheived this. The unofficial action by ordinary SIPTU members who in the best piratical tradition seized control of the ship.

Existing workers will retain their pay and conditions. There is a 3 year no strike deal. I doont think workers should accept a no strike deal but its their decision, no one has the right to tell workers that they cannot make such a decision. Unless you see yourself as having a right to overrule TU decisions. Thats a slippery slope ans one which leads to ideas like the militarisation of labour. The Latvian workers didnt get a vote on this deal but I suspect they would have voted in favour of it had they a chance. I base this opinion on the fact that they were previously prepared to work for €3.60 an hour with no paid time off.

The SUI has deposited itself in the dustbin of history it is now up to SIPTU to organise the Latvian workers and get them the same pay and conditions as the existing staff. The Latvian workers didnt have a vote on the deal so can it be legally binding on them? The other SIPTU workers would be entitled to take solidarity action in support of them. But thats down the road. First IF have to be unionised.

Piracy Not Partnership!

by Svanet - Workers Power (personal capacity) Wed Jan 04, 2006 16:34

FYI:

A correction to a previous error in a WP article, stating that the CWI acted as a "left cover" for the union bureaucracy in the Irish Ferries conflict is now posted to the WP blog. See attached URL.