This ongoing and vitally important campaign came about as a result of an increase in complaints from retail workers regarding the amounts of both verbal and physical abuse from customers. Mandate conducted an extensive survey involving over 20 retail businesses and their employees This campaign is undoubtedly Mandate’s most significant campaign in several years and has a number of objectives including raising awareness of this issue and trying to influence change from a small number of people who tend to abuse retail workers as well as securing stronger health and safety protections in the workplace for vulnerable workers in Irish […]

November 10th: Unite, which represents English Language Teachers throughout Ireland, today (Sunday) announced that pickets will resume tomorrow at Delfin English School while members in IBAT have also voted to take industrial action and will be holding a series of one-hour stoppages starting tomorrow with the potential for escalation if issues in dispute are not resolved. Teachers at Delfin will be taking strike action from  November 11th to November 15th inclusive, and from December 2nd to December  6th inclusive.  Teachers at IBAT will be holding one-hour stoppages (morning and afternoon) tomorrow and Friday, as well as on November 18th, 22nd, 25th and 29th. Commenting, Unite Regional […]

Coca-Cola workers in Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland, and the USA still need your support   Coca-Cola continues to violate the fundamental rights of workers in Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland and the USA. In Haiti its bottler La Brasserie de la Couronne continues to systematically deny workers their right to form and be represented by a union, SYTBRACOUR (read more here). In Indonesia Coca-Cola bottler Amatil pursues its long running attack on the rights of independent, democratic trade unions (for more read here). In Ireland, The Coca-Cola Company closed two of its directly owned concentrate plants, both of which were strongly unionized, and […]

Date Released: 07 November 2019 SIPTU representatives have stated that they will oppose any attempt to enforce compulsory redundancies on staff in RTÉ following the emergence of a plan to impose 200 job cuts at the national broadcaster. SIPTU Services Division Organiser, Karan O Loughlin, said: “SIPTU will oppose any attempt to enforce compulsory redundancies on staff in RTE. A plan for cutbacks at the national broadcaster, which was disgracefully leaked to the media yesterday (Wednesday, 6th November), reveals plans to cut 200 jobs. “The plan envisages that these job cuts will be achieved on a voluntary basis. However, there […]

The power of workers in society has been declining consistently since the 1970s. Power, measured by various metrics, such as union membership, union density, and days of industrial action, has been on a steady decline, related to and proportionate to the increased wealth of the rich and the transformation of Ireland into a haven for foreign direct investment and, more recently, a tax haven. As workers have less power in society, ideology and politics have shifted significantly to the right. Governments have implemented policy after policy that has left Ireland deeply divided and unequal. Liberal moves in recent times should […]

  News from INTO. The Department for Education and Skills published a report today, ‘Education Indicators for Ireland 2019’ which provides an overview of the current state of primary, post-primary and third level education in Ireland. Class Sizes  Today’s report shows that Irish primary schools remain crowded, four above the EU average. Smaller classes support inclusion and diversity of children, allow for more individual attention and meet the ambition of our government to establish the best education system in Europe. INTO is calling for Ireland to meet the Eurozone average of twenty pupils in a single class. Despite acknowledging the […]

We publish here the full speech of ULISES GUILARTE de NACIMENTO, general secretary of the Cuban Trade Union Confederation (CTC) to the TUC Congress in Brighton this year Dear Comrades, I am honoured in the name of the CTC — the central organisation of the Cuban trade unions, and all our affiliates in expressing fraternal greetings to the 151st TUC Congress, especially your general secretary Frances O’Grady. The TUC and the CTC have maintained historical relations of friendship, solidarity and mutual co-operation, which have passed the tests of time based on our traditions of struggle for the defence of workers’ […]

SIPTU members in GoSafe to hold protest at Leinster House on Thursday 7th November Date Released: 31 October 2019 SIPTU members in GoSafe are to hold a further one day stoppage on Thursday, 7th November, due to the company’s continued to refusal to accept a Labour Court recommendation that it engages with the union on their behalf. The workers, who operate speed cameras across the country, are in dispute which is centred on conditions of employment and health and safety issues The GoSafe workers will also hold a protest outside Leinster House at 1.00 p.m. on the same day to […]

Globally Union Activisits are being imprisoned, sacked and murdered on a daily basis by all kind on anti-democratic states. It our duty to support our comrades wherever they seek justice. Please  click on this link and support Erlan Baltabay in Kazakhstan. In July this year, Erlan Baltabay, a leader of the Independent Oil and Energy Workers’ Union in Kazakhstan, was sentenced to seven years in prison on politically motivated charges. A huge international union mobilization followed, including a LabourStart campaign signed by thousands calling for his release. He was released from prison in August after being pardoned by the President […]

Latest update from ICTU Website. Strike action at ABP Meats, Lurgan set to bring production lines to a standstill on Monday [November 4th]     First twenty-four hour strike at meat packing factory to commence midnight Monday [November 4th] Overwhelming support for industrial action driven by workers’ concerns over impact on childcare responsibilities Unite Regional Officer Brian Hewitt explained the background to a planned strike action by his members working in the Lurgan plant of Larry Goodman-owned, Anglo Beef Processing (NI). “Management in ABP meats in Lurgan have adopted an extremely antagonistic and aggressive approach to their workforce. Workers have been left with no alternative but to […]