New Events

Antrim

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Declined: Chapter 16: The Last Cigarette Sun Apr 20, 2025 09:00 | Molly Kingsley
Chapter 16 of Declined is here ? a dystopian satire by Molly Kingsley about the emergence of a social credit system in the UK. This week: Theo fails and must tell Ella he's stuck in re-education camp for two more weeks.
The post Declined: Chapter 16: The Last Cigarette appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The 60 Minutes I Spent Trying to Persuade a BBC Presenter That Lucy Connolly is a Political Prisoner Sun Apr 20, 2025 07:00 | Laurie Wastell
The Daily Sceptic's Laurie Wastell was astounded to be invited onto the BBC to put his case that Lucy Connolly is a political prisoner ? and even more astounded to find he was given a fair hearing.
The post The 60 Minutes I Spent Trying to Persuade a BBC Presenter That Lucy Connolly is a Political Prisoner appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Apr 20, 2025 00:02 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Rapists Can No Longer Claim to be Women Sat Apr 19, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
Rapists will no longer be able to identify as women following?the landmark Supreme Court transgender ruling, with police forces now expected to begin recording criminals' biological sex rather than preferred gender.
The post Rapists Can No Longer Claim to be Women appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Persecution of Nigeria?s Christians by Muslims is Medieval in its Horror Sat Apr 19, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
The persecution of Nigeria's Christians by Islamising Muslims is medieval in its horror, says Tom Goodenough. "Villages are surrounded in the dead of night by bandits who rape and kill the inhabitants. No one is spared."
The post The Persecution of Nigeria’s Christians by Muslims is Medieval in its Horror appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Airport workers suspend hunger strike after union guarantees that their demands will be met

category antrim | worker & community struggles and protests | feature author Saturday April 12, 2008 12:22author by CWI - CWI Report this post to the editors

featured image
Union concedes.

The five day hunger strike by three sacked airport shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer was suspended at 5.30 this afternoon after the workers received a letter from the union solicitors guaranteeing that their demands would be met.

The workers were forced to resort to the drastic step of a hunger strike because their union, Unite, had reneged on commitments given to them last September. These were that the union would pay the legal costs of their long running Industrial Tribunal case against their employer, ICTS, and would also meet the costs of defending the Industrial Tribunal ruling should ICTS appeal the decision. The union also promised to offer them compensation for its role in co-operating with ICTS to have them sacked.

The hunger strike has now been suspended because the union has not guaranteed to meet the full legal costs and have opened up negotiations on compensation with a guarantee that this will be settled by the end of April.

Sacked shop stewards Gordon McNeill commented at the end of the hunger strike: “We are suspending our action because we now have a firm commitment from the union that they will implement the promises they made last September. We also have a date by which all the issues of dispute should be resolved.

“We see this as a total vindication of the stand that we have made. Our only regret is that we had to resort to the drastic step of a hunger strike and put our health at risk. If the union had kept their word and implemented what they had agreed last September none of this would have been necessary.

“We also regret that no union official was prepared to meet and discuss with us face to face during our hunger strike. Had they met us the whole thing could have been resolved very quickly and we would not have had to suffer five days of cold, hunger and thirst.

“We have made a stand on behalf of all low paid workers by showing that we were not prepared to be pushed around either by our employer or our union

"I would like to pay tribute to those people in Ireland, Britain and across the world who inundated Unite union with protests on our behalf."

After coming off the hunger-strike, the workers have had to go to hospital for medical treatment. All are expected to make a recovery.

Issued on behalf of Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer

author by fpublication date Fri Apr 11, 2008 19:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Airport workers suspend hunger strike after union gives guarantees that their demands will be met

The five day hunger strike by three sacked airport shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer was suspended at 5.30 this afternoon after the workers received a letter from the union solicitors guaranteeing that their demands would be met.

The workers were forced to resort to the drastic step of a hunger strike because their union, Unite, had reneged on commitments given to them last September. These were that the union would pay the legal costs of their long running Industrial Tribunal case against their employer, ICTS, and would also meet the costs of defending the Industrial Tribunal ruling should ICTS appeal the decision. The union also promised to offer them compensation for its role in co-operating with ICTS to have them sacked.

The hunger strike has now been suspended because the union has guaranteed to meet the full legal costs and have opened up negotiations on compensation with a guarantee that this will be settled by the end of April.

Sacked shop stewards Gordon McNeill commented at the end of the hunger strike: “We are suspending our action because we now have a firm commitment from the union that they will implement the promises they made last September. We also have a date by which all the issues of dispute should be resolved.

“We see this as a total vindication of the stand that we have made. Our only regret is that we had to resort to the drastic step of a hunger strike and put our health at risk. If the union had kept their word and implemented what they had agreed last September none of this would have been necessary.

“We also regret that no union official was prepared to meet and discuss with us face to face during our hunger strike. Had they met us the whole thing could have been resolved very quickly and we would not have had to suffer five days of cold, hunger and thirst.

“We have made a stand on behalf of all low paid workers by showing that we were not prepared to be pushed around either by our employer or our union

"I would like to pay tribute to those people in Ireland, Britain and across the world who inundated Unite union with protests on our behalf."

After coming off the hunger-strike, the workers have had to go to hospital for medical treatment. All are expected to make a recovery.

Issued on behalf of Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer

author by Georgie Bhoypublication date Sun Apr 20, 2008 16:29author address author phone Report this post to the editors


What times we live in when workers have to fight their own Unions for justice. Smash the reactionary Unions! Justice for the workers!

author by Justice for Belfast Airport Workerspublication date Wed May 14, 2008 17:29author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Sign the petition online to support the sacked Belfast Airport workers.

http://gopetition.co.uk/petitions/justice-for-sacked-be....html

Please forward on to friends, family and workmates.

Related Link: http://belfastairportworkers.wordpress.com/
 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy