Eamonn Rothwell, the Managing Director of Irish Ferries who is trying to sack 543 workers and replace them with migrant workers from Eastern Europe, earned €687,000 last year. In fact he got a pay rise of €35,000 in 2004.

That is approximately €20,000 more than what he intends to pay his "galley slaves" for a whole year. One last statistic - this man who claims that his company needs to replace unionised labour with migrants on slave wages in order to stay competitive earned more than 45 times the wages he proposes to give one of his new workers!

Neither the government nor IBEC are complaining about his wages. No, once again it is the "lower orders" (as one commentator called them) that are being made to suffer for the profits of big business.

Bertie Ahern feigned interest in the plight of the Irish Ferries workers when he declared that the company was engaged in sharp practice. The truth is that Bertie Ahern and his PD coalition partners support what Irish Ferries are doing. This government have consciously encouraged migrant workers to come to Ireland not just because there is a labour shortage but also so that big business can exploit and use them to drive down the wages of all workers. Tom Parlon the Minister of State at the Department of Finance said that the prospective new employees of Irish Ferries would be better off than they would be in their own country because they would be getting €3.50 an hour and board and lodging!

In the Dail Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD, challenged Bertie Ahern on the issue: "The conditions sought by Irish Ferries for their new workers can only be described as semi-bonded labour. They will slave for 84 hours per week, work for months on end with no break and eat and sleep in their workplace - the ship - for €3.50 per hour. That is a mere €3.50 more than the galley slaves of ancient Rome except, I am sure, if we were around in those days, the galley bosses would have saved us guff about obeying workers' rights.

"Why are ships flying banana boat flags of convenience allowed to ply EU waters with impunity after all the Taoiseach's talk of social charters, workers' rights and the rest of it during, for example, recent referenda? Is the answer that the policy of European big business, supported by governments like the Taoiseach's, is that migrant labour is there to be abused as is happening in front of the Taoiseach's eyes in the construction industry, the meat industry and in many other industries in order to maximise profit?"

SIPTU cannot solve this crisis with trips to the High Court for temporary injunctions, nor by empty appeals to the government. A strike to shut down Irish Ferries must be called immediately. Irish Ferries will be defeated if the leadership of SIPTU makes it clear that they will mobilise trade unionists in the ports of Ireland, Britain and France to refuse to handle its ships. SIPTU has the power to shut the Irish Ferries operation down until they agree to employ all of their staff on current trade union rates of pay and conditions.

If the SIPTU leaders refuse to fight and allow Irish Ferries to succeed it will rank as one of the most despicable betrayals of the working class in the history of the Irish trade union movement.

543 JOBS to be slashed and replaced with super exploited migrant labour with deplorable pay and conditions. The attack by Irish Ferries is a warning of what the future holds for workers generally if the trade unions continue to refuse to struggle to defend workers' rights.

Eamonn Rothwell, the Chief Executive of ICG, the owner of Irish Ferries, says the company wanted to "give democracy a chance" by giving the workers a choice between keeping their jobs with wages at a fraction of what they were or accept "voluntary" redundancy lump sums! IBEC backed up Irish Ferries saying "most reasonable people" would agree that it would be better to have "several hundred moderately paid jobs, than no jobs".

Moderately paid job means working 84 hour weeks at €3.50 an hour! Giving out about the minimum wage level, IBEC went on to say that the issues of wage costs and competitiveness must be addressed otherwise there will be a hemorrhaging of jobs in Ireland. In reality IBEC is indicating that a serious offensive against wages and conditions is beginning, not only in private industry but in the public sector as well. Such wages and conditions would condemn people into extreme poverty, given conditions in Ireland.

In comparison to the bosses, workers only got the crumbs from the table over the last ten years. Companies made huge profits off workers' record productivity but now because the profit system is facing crisis and competition amongst capitalist companies and countries is intensifying, they want to maintain their profits by slashing the wages and conditions of workers. The government is part of this attack and its statements of concern are disgusting. Workers and the trade unions are about to feel the impact of heavy blows as the bosses begin to put the boot in.

These events will challenge the rotten policy of "social partnership", which always means that workers' rights are subordinated to profit maximisation. It is not good enough for the trade union leaders, who helped create the momentum for globalisation, to now demand that the government take action against the likes of Irish Ferries. The unions must take action here and in turn must link up with workers in other countries in a united effort to resist wage competition and to defend workers' rights.

Over the last couple of weeks, SIPTU tried to cut across the redundancy package because it represented a serious blow to the status of the union. They put pressure on the government, to put pressure on IBEC, to put pressure on Irish Ferries. The high initial take up of the redundancy packages reflected that workers had little confidence in either SIPTU or the Seaman's Union of Ireland, given their poor record and lack of leadership in defending conditions over years.

While Irish Ferries are attending the Labour Court talks, they remain committed to their proposals. Nothing short of the scrapping of the proposals should be acceptable to the unions. Any jobs that are vacant by voluntary redundancy must be replaced by direct labour on the same wages and conditions that currently exist. A "compromise" where some experienced officers remain on current conditions but with a new "yellow pack" staff, or something similar should be rejected.

Union leaders have bemoaned how the laws of the land don't stop this kind of thing. We can expect nothing more from laws that are framed and used for the benefit of business. The root of the problem is organising an economy based on profiteering rather than people's needs. But the trade union leadership's support for the dictates of the capitalist market has helped create the nightmare scenario of "A race to the bottom". Unless Irish Ferries pull back completely, industrial action should be organised. There would be huge public support for a struggle to defend proper jobs, wages and conditions at Irish Ferries.

Migrant workers now make up 7% of the workforce in Ireland, numbering in excess of 137,000 with 70% working in low paid employment.

Workers, in the main from Eastern Europe but also from Asia, are lured to Ireland by advertisements seeking "ambitious people" who would like to earn "several times" what they currently earn in their field of work. Often the truth is very different.

One worker who was hired in India, where the average wage is less than €100 per month, to work in a restaurant in Galway was told he would be paid over €1000 a month. It was a different story once he got here. "The day I arrived he [the employer] took my passport and told me that he could not afford €1000 a month, so I would have to work for €80 per week. I also had to work for over 70 hours, starting at 11am and finishing after midnight. I had one day off a week."

Workers are often forced to fork out for their permits, slum accommodation and other extras that employers pile on and illegally deduct from their wages. A lot of migrant workers report that they receive no pay slips. Arek (not his real name), a Polish construction worker said, "he [the employer] told us that only Irish workers needed pay slips. I do not know if I am working legally or illegally but I am afraid I will anger him if I ask".

An increase in claims from migrant workers under the Payment of Wages Act has led to a record level of referrals to the Labour Relations Commission in recent years. But the vast majority of abuses still go unchecked. Many migrant workers are isolated due to language barriers and fear of being sacked or victimised by employers. Others are effectively in a bonded labour arrangement due to the fact that employers still hold work permits. This means that despite their conditions or pay, workers in this situation cannot change jobs.

Nine months after the GAMA scandal hit the headlines around the country, the construction industry remains a hot bed of exploitation for many migrant workers. A TEEU shop steward I spoke to said he came across a young Romanian labourer on site who told him he had been made work all day Sunday for just €30. Union organisers in the Building and Allied Trades' Union recently uncovered two Polish companies, Noris Poland and Granite who were paying less than half the minimum industry rate to Polish stone workers who were working on developments in the Dublin Docklands.

Employers are attempting to not only brutally exploit migrant workers but also to use them to drive down the pay and conditions of Irish workers. When this is not enough, they will attempt the wholesale smashing of decently paid trade union jobs, replacing them with low paid migrant workers as they are trying to do in Irish Ferries.

Irish Ferries was also in the news not too long ago over the case of Filipino hairdresser and beautician Salvacion Orge who worked 12 hour shifts without breaks, seven days a week on the Isle of Innishmore for just €1.08 per hour. This situation was brought to light by Irish union members on the ship who brought the matter to the attention of their union, SIPTU, along with collecting over €1,000 for Salvacion while her case was being dealt with.

There are many examples where rank and file union members have taken action to protect and assist migrant workers. Ultimately the responsibility to ensure that migrant workers are not used either as slave labour or to drive down the conditions of Irish workers falls to the trade union movement. Failure to do so would have dire consequences for Irish and migrant workers alike.

Abrakebabra rip-off

SIPTU shop steward and Socialist Party Councillor Clare Daly recently assisted a young Slovakian airport worker who had previously worked for the fast food chain Abrakebabra in Dublin.

When she left Abrakebabra she was owed approximately €180 for four days work which the manager refused to pay her. Clare's intervention resulted in the company having to pay the young worker the €180 plus €400 for unpaid holidays that she did not know she was entitled to.