Today’s demonstration starts at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin’s Upper Merrion Street at 12 noon and finishes at 1.30pm. Fórsa and SIPTU members, working in Local Employment Services (LES) and Job Clubs are set to demand an immediate intervention from Taoiseach Michael Martin today (Monday) at a protest outside the Department of the Taoiseach. Unions say the protest will highlight the threat to the livelihoods of their members and the vital services they provide to the community from the imminent threat of privatisation. The unions have said a Government-imposed tendering process favours for-profit providers over the current community-focussed, not-for-profit service. […]

Ireland’s school secretaries are to stage a one-day strike on Wednesday 15th September, and will gather in the capital for a national rally on the same day. Their union Fórsa said pickets would be placed on the Dublin headquarters of the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), which stand accused of blocking implementation of a Government commitment to standardise pay and conditions of school secretaries. Most of them earn just €12,500 a year, with irregular short-term contracts that force them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks. Almost a year ago, the […]

Patricia King, General Secretary has written to An Taoiseach Micheal Martin TD to outline the principle concerns for the next phase of the return to work.  You can read the full text of this letter here.

Covid – one health worker’s story As part of the RESPECT = RECOGNITION campaign by the group of unions representing health service workers, we reached out to a few Fórsa members to tell us about their experience of working during the Covid pandemic. JACKIE BROWN works in emergency department admin at one of Dublin’s main acute hospitals, and provided this thoughtful account. The experience of working at the frontline, in an emergency department during the Covid pandemic, has been both challenging and rewarding.  For this generation it’s changed the world and how we work. In January 2020 the world didn’t […]

    Press Release – 16.8.21 Trade unions representing health workers have asked Micheál Martin to help resolve the row over recognition for health workers’ efforts and commitment during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter sent last Friday (13th August), they called on the Taoiseach to “intervene immediately to authorise the HSE and relevant Government departments to engage with health service unions to agree and implement the promised recognition without any further delay.” The move reflects growing frustration among health workers, which was compounded by the HSE’s failure to put forward any proposals at a recent Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) […]

SIPTU members at the biopharmaceutical company, AbbVie, in Carrigtwohill, county Cork, are considering an escalation in their industrial action in a dispute resulting from the refusal of management to engage with representatives of the workers’ union for collective bargaining purposes. SIPTU Organiser, Allen Dillon, said: “Members at the plant are currently in their second week of industrial action in the form of an overtime ban in the manufacturing process. They are considering escalating their industrial action if management continue to fail to fully implement two Labour Court recommendations, from 2017 and 2020.  “These recommendations call on the company to engage […]

Press Release – 19.7.21   members in the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar will protest outside the hospital today (Monday) against understaffing and an excessive workload – which they warn is compromising patient care. Mullingar is facing 50 unfilled nursing shifts over the coming fortnight, falling short of the minimum staffing levels required for safe care. Attendances have increased, while there are currently 50 nursing vacancies (29 permanent) in the hospital, which is putting staffing under pressure. The INMO have engaged with the HSE to try and find a resolution to this issue and are not satisfied with the response to […]

SIPTU representatives have today (Wednesday, 14th July) said that ‘blended working’ arrangements should be made available, where possible, to workers throughout the public service and state sector. The call follows the publication by the Government of its ‘Blended Working Policy Statement’ which facilitates civil service workers switching from pandemic-related remote working provisions to more long-term ‘blended working’ arrangements. SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, said: “This is a welcome, albeit overdue, move from the Government and will go some way towards honouring the commitment in the Programme for Government for one-fifth of public sector workers to be working from home […]

The World Federation of Trade Unions, which is the militant voice of 105 million workers in 133 countries on five continents, conveys its internationalist solidarity to the Cuban workers and People. We strongly condemn the recent provocations orchestrated by counterrevolutionary elements in Cuba, organised and financed from the United States for destabilising purposes. Come out and support our Cuban Friends by going to the Cuban Embassy, On Westland Square off Pearse Street on Wednesday 14th at 9am. Stand with Cuba.   The world class-oriented trade union movement supports the Cuban People in their struggle against these actions. We demand the […]

SIPTU members employed by Doyle Shipping Group (DSG) at Dublin Port have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in a dispute concerning their pay, terms and conditions of employment and safety concerns within their workplace. SIPTU Organiser, Jim McVeigh, said: “SIPTU representatives have formally notified DSG management of our members’ intention to take industrial action, in the form of rolling 72-hour work stoppages, commencing on Monday, 19th July.  “This decision was taken by our members due to the continued refusal of management to recognise SIPTU as their union of choice for the purpose of collective bargaining. Our members in DSG are among the lowest […]