As we go to press 47 staff at Tullybeg Retirement Village in Rahan in Co. Offaly continue their three-week occupation of a nursing home.

One of the company directors Ted Cunningham was arrested earlier this year when Garda’ discovered £2.3 million (€3.34 million) in his garden during investigations into money laundering and the Northern Bank robbery. He told staff on 15 July that he would pay them three weeks wages and holiday pay by 19 July. To date this has still not been paid.

Susan Fitzgerald spoke to Bridie Delaney who has worked in the home for three years.

"Well to begin with we didn't even know we were out of work, nobody told us. When the clients started to be moved out of the nursing home, obviously we knew then that we were in trouble. The last clients left on 1 July, nobody came to speak to us, none of the directors or management. We were just left here completely in the dark.

"The first real piece of information we got was due to the fact that the mother of one of the girls here was resident in the home and her family got word from the Health Service Executive that she was to be moved because management were closing up. Only for that we wouldn't have known till the ambulances arrived to move people.

"When we realised what was going on we sat down and talked about it, we all decided that if we leave here now, if we walk out that's it we're gone, the doors will close and we'll be locked out. At that stage some of the girls were still owed wages going back to 16 June. So we realised we couldn't afford to leave the place, we just kept coming back and doing our usual shifts, and we make sure there are people here around the clock.

"We also put a picket out at the entrance to the grounds and no one passed. The local golf course is on the grounds of the retirement village and is run by the same directors as the home here. This week local golfers boycotted the club in support. The community have been brilliant, extremely supportive but the loss of these jobs will have a big impact. Nearly all of the staff live within a ten or twelve mile radius so, as you can imagine, the loss of 56 jobs will be felt by the community as a whole.

"We are doing this on our own, we have no union, we were never allowed to have a union. That was made very clear when you started to work here, if you want to be part of a union find some other place to work. I'm only here three years, but apparently others tried on a couple of occasions to get the union in and those girls had their hours cut. You would be kind of forced out then if you were seen as a trouble makers.

"There are 47 of us left, out of a staff of 56. Some of the part time staff moved on and got work but the rest of us are staying put, our position is that if they pay our wages we'll go, but not 'till then. Inevitably for some people this is very difficult, we have been down and depressed, they've been showing prospective buyers around the building while we're here, but while its difficult we are determined that we are going to stay here and try to get our money."

An offer from the Labour Court to settle the dispute over An Post's failure to pay the national wage agreement falls far short of the demands of the main union, Communication workers Union, (CWU).

The offer links payment of Sustaining Progress to the demand that postal collection and delivery (C&D) staff accept a derisory productivity deal. This deal for the delivery staff is well below what other groups of workers got in the past and all staff will still not receive back money owed to them from 2004.

This offer supports the original strategy of the postal management, to use the non-payment of the national wage agreement as a stick to beat the delivery staff into accepting a bad deal. The main unions in An Post must now resist this strategy and call on their members to reject the Labour Court offer.

The CWU has long sought to avoid the linking of the payment of the national pay rises to the agreement of major changes in C&D. Such changes will see job loses, 600 in Dublin alone, cuts in pay and worsening of staff's conditions and rights. It also proposes more casual workers and yellow pack workers. Such a deal would generate saving of millions for the company. The leadership of the CWU correctly wanted to negotiate these changes separately. However, once they agreed to bring both issues to the pro-business Labour Court they surrendered control of this strategy. The Labour Court has now brought both issues back together.

The C&D productivity offer which effects 5,500 staff nation-wide reflects major changes wanted by the company to drive down take home pay and drive up productivity of staff. Such deals have already been done in other parts of the company. However C&D staff now are being offered less than their other colleagues. Although the 10.7% on offer may seem not far off the 12.5% given to the counter clerks it is a percentage of a much smaller basic. The maximum basic of post person is €463 a week but the maximum of a clerk is €581. In monetary terms, the increase is much lower than previous deals.

CWU members should demand that their leadership organises meetings to discuss this offer and a strategy to take on and defeat the company's agenda.

Management's strategy of trying to blackmail the CWU into accepting the C&D changes should be resisted. If the full implications of this deal were properly explained to the members it would be rejected.

The Labour Court is supporting the idea that postal workers should subsidise An Post and this is highlighted by their proposal that the company should only pay back money due when the company returns to a sustained profitability.

The senior management is on a rampage of attacks on pay, jobs and conditions. The fundamental question of state funding for the national postal service by the government is still unresolved and in fact has been forgotten in this latest proposal.

An Post unions need to unite around a call for their members to reject the Labour Court and management proposals. There is widespread anger amongst An Post workers and this anger should be mobilised into industrial action to take on the company.

If the union leaders neglect to do this then An Post workers' pay and conditions will be slashed, thousands will lose their jobs and our national postal service will be privatised.

The occupation by workers at O'Donovan's butcher shop in Princes Street, Cork, against unfair redundancy terms ended in victory.

Management announced last April that the company was making a loss for the past two years due to construction work in the environs of the shop, but would not allow any inspection of the company accounts by workers or union officials to back up their claims.

A so-called "survival plan" was presented to the workers, which provided for eight voluntary redundancies to make way for lower paid, part-time jobs. Those who took redundancy would only receive the minimum statutory redundancy pay of two weeks pay for every year of employment- a paltry sum, considering that many workers had given 20-30 years service to the company, an entire lifetime! For the workers who stayed on, they would be given no overtime pay, no bonuses, and stood to lose €5,000 from their annual wages. To top it off, the management would not allow any negotiations to reach a compromise.

Needless to say, the staff were not impressed, and at a union meeting they voted to reject the plan. They and their union representatives from MANDATE repeatedly invited the management to take the case to the labour relations commission, but to no avail, and the workers were told that the shop would shut down on 28 June. All staff would be made redundant, with none being allowed to transfer to the company's other branch and they would receive the same redundancy pay as in the "survival plan".

Angered at this unfair treatment, the workers planned to go on strike on Saturday 25 June but were told suddenly on Thursday 23 June that the shop would close that day. They were then given their pay cheques and asked to leave. Eight workers took the matter into their own hands and occupied the building, while the remaining members of staff set up a picket line the following day. Public support was massive, with thousands of names collected on a petition, and despite having declared the sit-in an illegal act of trespassing, the management was forced to back down and enter into talks with the workers.

The workers secured the re-opening of the shop, no wage cuts for workers staying with the company and a fairer deal for those taking redundancy (double the pay provided for in the survival plan), a huge improvement on the conditions being forced on them earlier and an example of what can be achieved through struggle.

Irish Ferries is trying to increase profits by hiring workers from outside Ireland on scandalously low wages (below minimum wage) and long hours - and it's perfectly legal because of a maritime "loophole".

Last year, Irish Ferries' ship, the Normandy, de-registered from Ireland and registered in the Bahamas, making their actions legal as they are now outside Irish law despite operating only a European route between Ireland and Europe.

Irish workers have been laid off and non-Irish workers (mostly Eastern European) have been hired to work twice as long, but for half the pay.

One worker, working 12 hour shifts was being paid just over €3 per hour which includes overtime and bonus payments. The Normandy does not have to pay leave, overtime at weekends or cover rest periods. This is a dangerous precedent as in recent times low pay scandals, including the GAMA scandal, show the lengths to which companies are willing to go to slash workers' rights and conditions in pursuit of profits.

This is what is really meant by making companies "competitive". Big businesses have been calling the tune with neo-liberal policies, paying low tax, have little or no regulation and don't have to recognise trade unions. And this is the result!

French workers have twice blockaded the Cherbourg route in protest at the actions of companies like Irish Ferries - this type of militant action needs to be built on and replicated by Irish unions in particular SIPTU, in order to force Irish Ferries to abandon this practice and to prevent other companies from following their example.

The threat of industrial action by prison officers has temporarily receded due to the decision by the Prison Officers Association (POA) leadership to recommend a new offer to its members at a special conference in Dublin in July.

The recommendation by the POA leaders increases the likelihood of the deal being accepted. However, the offer is not dramatically different from a previous one, particularly on the crucial issue of overtime. The earlier offer was rejected by a ratio of two to one. The main reason for rejection was that many officers felt they would be forced to work overtime. The new deal makes slight changes on the question of overtime and McDowell has said he is willing to re-examine the closure of Spike Island Prison but only if the deal is accepted.

Mc Dowell is using the issue of pay and overtime as a smoke screen to hide the real agenda of the government, which is the privatisation of the prison service. Since the rejection of the first offer, McDowell has been implementing a process of prison closures and privatising aspects of the service. He has only deferred the start of the tendering process for the prison escort services in order for the ballot to take place. It is claimed that the escorting of prisoners accounts for 25% of the overtime bill. He has also indicated that the tender to construct the controversial new prison in North County Dublin might be offered on a "construct and operate" basis.

Prison officers are to the forefront of the battle against the drive to privatisation that is being waged by this government. The wages and conditions of their members will be slashed if the government is allowed to bring in privatised non-union prisons. It would also have detrimental affect on prisoners as has been shown in Britain and other countries.

The only way decent pay and conditions for the prison staff and proper conditions for prisoners can be guaranteed is for the state to run the prison service, not private companies whose only consideration will be profit.