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North - Industrial News
 College lecturers strike over pay
Gerry Maguire, Enniskillen Socialist Party

Further Education colleges across Northern Ireland were closed for two days at the end of May as 1,600 lecturers took strike action over pay. The action was completely solid with lively pickets outside most colleges.

A work to rule is now continuing and further strike action is planned for the autumn unless the demand for parity with teachers is met.

This action is the result of a dispute dating back some five years after the Horisk report – an independent review of wages in the sector – reported that teachers and lecturers in further and higher education were substantially underpaid. The maximum of the lecturers’ scale is about £2,500 less than the maximum of a teacher’s scale.

A striker on the picket line in Enniskillen told me: "Lecturers’ wages in the further and higher education sector have seriously fallen behind that of the primary and secondary sector.

"These issues have been raised over the last five years between the union and the colleges and indeed the Department of Education and Learning who are responsible for releasing the money to cover this discrepancy.

"Lecturers are responsible for coordination and organisational duties. Colleges are reliant on people like ourselves to take on these responsibilities, but aren’t willing to reflect this in our wage.

"Our union, NATFHE have so far taken ‘a patient approach’ to the matter, but this patient approach has meant the issue has dragged on unresolved since 2001. The patience of the union members has now worn out.

"NATFHE has evidence to indicate that there is an abundance of financial reserves in this sector in regards to all the colleges. They could well afford to release funding to meet the demands of the staff on strike."

Outside Fermanagh College the mood of the pickets on the second one-day strike was that the action should be stepped up and that all out action might be necessary if the Department doesn’t give way.
North - Industrial News
 Fighting to save jobs in Lisnaskea
Peter Hadden

Workers at the Moy Park plant in Lisnaskea (formerly Ferne Foods) are organising alongside the local community to fight the proposed closure of the plant.

Ferne Foods was a viable company when it was taken over by Moy Park four years ago. At that time Moy Park were planning to concentrate their business in their Dungannon factory where they have recently invested £35 million. They clearly did not want to face competition from a Fermanagh rival. So Ferne was taken over and is now to be mothballed.

Moy Park are currently the fourth largest company in Northern Ireland, employing over 4,000 and with a turnover of £336 million. Two years ago their profits increased by 111% to £8.3 million. Last year there was a further 7% rise to £8.9 million.

In the lead up to the closure announcement, even the Lisnaskea management were kept in the dark. Moy Park are currently resisting demands from the T&GWU for full disclosure of information of the reasons for the closure.

A successful ongoing campaign to save this plant must be based on the unions and the local communities and not rely on the politicians who will do no more to save this factory than they did to stop other closures.

If Moy Park insist on pulling out, the demand must be raised for the factory to be taken into public ownership so that the jobs, the skills and the production can be maintained in Fermanagh.

This is not a case of Fermanagh against the rest – the links that exist through the T&GWU with other Moy Park plants should be strengthened. United action across all the plants would force Moy Park to reconsider and would strengthen the position of the union and the workforce generally. Join the protest march in Lisnaskea on 17 June.
North - Industrial News
 NIPSA conference - Time to build a united left
Paul Dale, NIPSA Civil Service Executive (personal capacity)

The pay, jobs, conditions of NIPSA members, as well as the services they provide, are now under constant attack. These attacks were reflected in the angry mood of most delegates at the union's recent Conference in Newcastle.

Members in the Education and Library Boards face budget cuts and the Conference agreed to take a break to allow two busloads of delegates to attend a picket of the SEELB meeting.

Civil Service members were rightly angered by the strike ballot on pay which was narrowly lost earlier this year. The campaign for a "yes" vote was led by left members of the Executive and it will be interesting to hear what ideas the right wing grouping, who have a majority of the Civil Service Executive, have for this year's pay battle.

As well as condemning New Labour over its attack on pensions and its selling off of government buildings, Conference backed a motion calling for a socialist Venezuela.

The best debate was probably the last with Socialist Party members at the forefront of the call for a political fund. If Nipsa is serious in wanting to confront fascists such as the BNP, or to join other unions in offering a challenge to the sectarian politicians, it needs to have a political fund.

Unfortunately while the argument may have been won, the vote wasn’t. The motion was narrowly lost and Nipsa will have difficulty passing comment on political issues as a result.

The elections saw a left Editorial Board elected and Socialist Party members Billy Lynn, Brian Booth and Carmel Gates returned unopposed as the President and Chairpersons of the Public Officers and Civil Service Executive.

There was a packed lunchtime meeting of the left Time for Change group, which includes the Socialist Party, to discuss the building of a united left in the union able to challenge and defeat the right wing. This is now the key task facing all activists in the union.
North - Industrial News
 Visteon workers boycott talks
The Socialist

Workers in the Belfast Visteon plant are currently boycotting negotiations that are taking place in Britain over terms and conditions.

A source in the factory told The Socialist: "When Visteon was split from Ford we were given a guarantee that we would retain Ford terms and conditions for life. The current negotiations have been called by Visteon to break this agreement and try to enforce worse conditions, including a two year pay freeze.

"They have backed this with the threat that, unless we accept their proposals, the Belfast plant will close. "We have decided not to take part in these negotiations and will take action, if necessary, to stay on Ford terms and conditions. We are not going to be blackmailed by threats of closure."

As we reported in May, two thirds of the factory site has already been sold to a holding company. The entire union movement must be prepared to stand with the Visteon workers if they are forced into a struggle to save this factory from closure.
North - Industrial News
 Dungannon Meats workers demand union rights
The Socialist

Socialist Party and Socialist Youth members joined a picket of Dungannon Meats organised by the T&GWU on 10 May opposing the outsourcing of jobs.

46 workers in the plant are to be made redundant with only minimum statutory redundancy payment, as their jobs are replaced with agency labour. The new workers are being brought in on worse conditions in what is a straightforward cost cutting exercise.

The T&GWU is planning to follow up the picket with protests at supermarkets which are supplied by Dungannon Meats. The aim is to alert shoppers to what is going on in the company and prepare for a boycott of its products if this dispute escalates. This campaign was launched with a picket of Finaghy Co-op.

Dungannon Meats are an anti union company but 300 of their workers recently signed a petition calling on them to recognise the T&GWU. This battle is not just to save jobs and stop outsourcing, it is to force Dungannon Meats to allow their workers proper trade union rights.