Show Respect for Retail Workers Over the Festive Season Friday 13 December 2019 Mandate Trade Union launched our membership led Respect Retail Workers campaign ten Christmases ago. Once again, we wish to make a renewed appeal to all retail customers to remember to treat workers, at what is the busiest time of the retail year, with courtesy and respect over Christmas 2019. In our most recent online survey we asked Retail workers to provide us with any instances, and more specifically their own personal experiences, in the retail trade of customers verbally abusing them. Mandate received 628 responses from members […]

Human Rights Day 2020 10 December is Human Rights Day — marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Workers rights are human rights! Please take a moment to show your support for these active campaigns on LabourStart: Poland: Reinstate sacked union leaders at Castorama South Korea: Protecting safe rates for truck drivers Philippines: Anti-union repression against teacher union Kazakhstan: Trade unionist Erlan Baltabay imprisoned – again! Cambodia: Solidarity with workers at the West Mebun temple

A number of HSE grades, including environmental health officers, biochemists, and pharmacy and clinical measurement grades, are to get enhanced annual leave arrangements thanks to a deal painstakingly negotiated by Fórsa. The new arrangement will standardise their leave, bringing it in line with other health professional grades. The agreement also aligns the leave of similar voluntary hospital staff, who missed out on an earlier standardisation deal that aligned leave with the HSE. Under a deal brokered by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the improved leave is to be backdated to 2015 on a “cost neutral” basis in both the HSE […]

A very interesting article on the role of Trade Unionism   “Trade Unions are the schools of socialism. It is in trade unions that workers educate themselves and become socialists, because under their very eyes the every day struggle with capital is taking place.”—Karl Marx This pamphlet contains some excerpts from the extensive work that Lenin wrote on Trade Unions. It is hoped that they will provide a basis for discussion around the current position and issues of today’s trade union movement.Trade Unions are suffering from the fallout of Thatcherism including anti-trade union laws and the effects associated with partnership […]

Fórsa today (Tuesday) welcomed the allocation of €75,000 to investigate the feasibility of bringing Dublin City Council’s refuse and waste management services back into local authority control. The decision, which is included in the council’s 2020 budget, comes on foot recommendations by a working group on remunicipalisation of the service, which was privatised in 2011. The council will now seek tenders for a research project in partnership with a third level institution. It is expected that the duration of the project will be between a year and 18 months, which means it will report within the lifetime of the existing […]

News from NIPSA.   HSC Ballot on Safe Staffing and Pay Justice  Published: 29 November 2019 NIPSA Health Campaign I am pleased to confirm the result of the Industrial Action ballot as follows: Are you prepared to take part in Industrial action consisting of a Strike? YES 90.4% Are you prepared to take part in Industrial Action short of a Strike? YES 96.6% This landslide result is a clear message that NIPSA members are not prepared to continue to work within a Health & Social Care service that has unsafe staffing levels, that puts patients in danger and where they […]

Unite members at Hovis in Belfast to be balloted on strike action in fair pay dispute   Once overtime and shift bonuses are removed, basic rates of pay in bread manufacturer are below the legal minimum Strike ballot is likely to be result in widespread disruption to bread supply in January 2020 Unite Regional Officer, Sean McKeever, confirmed that he was initiating a ballot of his members working at  and warned that the Bread Manufacturing sector would have to address the issue of poverty pay among their workforce to avoid disruption to supply in the early new year. “Unite’s members at […]

Probably the best Trade Union newsletter on this Island. Shopfloor is now out with some Inspiration great news and educational information Join a Union today  

At the recent the Forsa Annual conference motion 252 was put to the the floor and accepted as follows: Oisin Murphy (Children and Youth Affairs Executive Grade Branch), speaking on motion. 252, asked: “What happened to the principle of an injury to one is an injury to all?” He insisted it was vital for workers to have access to “our principal weapon… if we are to be effective as a union” and suggested repealing and replacing the 1990 Industrial Relations Act would be the “the biggest strike for workers in achieving the goals that make battles possible and winnable.” Motion […]

Statement from Mandate Trade Union.   Collective Rights of Workers Must be Protected Wednesday 27 November 2019 YOUR right as a worker to become a member of a trade union is enshrined in the Irish Constitution, so you might be forgiven for believing this bestows rights that allow you to have that union represent and collectively bargain on your behalf – but, alas, not so. Irish law does not give workers the collective right to have their union negotiate on their behalf. It’s akin to being allowed join a golf club, but not being allowed to play golf. If workers […]