* Reinstate sacked organisers

* Build a fighting union!

It's bad enough for strikers to see anyone crossing their picket line but when the scabs are full time trade union officials, including a general secretary, it makes for a particularly disgusting spectacle.

Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU) General Secretary Paddy O’Shaughnessy, Assistant General Secretary Brendan O’Sullivan and organisers Andy Smith and Greg Macken have continually passed our pickets. Not only are they passing pickets but they are also scabbing by carrying out the work of striking office staff. Deputy General Secretary Denis Farrell has refused to pass our picket line.

There are six of us on strike and we are members of Unite / ATGWU. We began official industrial action against our employer BATU on 9 May. We did not take the decision to engage in industrial action lightly, but the Ryanair like actions of the General Secretary and others has left us with no choice.

On May Day, the Assistant General Secretary Brendan O’Sullivan himself typed up the forced redundancy notices that were then signed by Paddy O’Shaughnessy and issued that day to union organisers Tom Fitzgerald and Robert Kelly. No criteria was given as to why Tom and Rob had been selected for redundancy. Tom Fitzgerald who has eight years service with the union has been replaced by Greg Macken who has eleven months service, this “organiser” is now answering the phones and doing the typing. 

Office staff were threatened with an imposed, non negotiable pay cut of 10% along with detrimental changes to conditions of employment. When we requested union representation we were informed that a staff association was in place in BATU and that there would be no discussions with our union.

The so called staff rep, Andy Smith, casually informed office staff that he had been elected to represent us. This was the first we heard about the BATU staff association. We refused his representation and continued to press for our union to be recognised. We were informed by the General Secretary that our pay would be docked for attending union meetings.

After Tom and Rob were served the compulsory redundancy notice and were barred from the building, the locks and alarm codes were changed and a private security guard was hired to wander the building.  When I attended for work on 2 May I was told by the General Secretary that I was not to turn on or touch my computer, he then said I should go home, “have a day off”, which I refused to do. My desk-side locker, which contained not only personal items but members private details, had been smashed open and the contents rifled through. Other office staff were locked out of the union’s membership system, effectively preventing them from doing any work. When the notice of redundancy was served on Robert Kelly, he was given 15 minutes to leave the building. Both he and Tom were escorted from the building by the scabs now doing their work.

Before placing pickets on the building the first thing we did was issue a leaflet to members of BATU explaining that we are in dispute with the leadership of the union, not with them. We have had hundreds of members pledging support for our dispute, and organising work place collections.

Members have also visited the picket line every single day to show support for us but also to register their disgust at those passing pickets. The solidarity and instinctive defence of basic trade union principles by the members of BATU stands in stark contrast to those paid officials who claim to represent them.

Tommy Fitzgerald sacked BATU full time organiser spoke to Stephen Boyd of the Socialist: “The background to our dispute lies in the serious financial problems facing BATU which has a deficit of approximately €300,000 per quarter. The key to solving the financial problems of BATU lies in recruiting and organising more workers in the construction industry. “Instead the General Secretary Paddy O’Shaughnessy decided to sack Robert Kelly and myself and to reduce the wages of the office staff by 10%. A pay cut of 10% to Paddy O’Shaughnessy who earns €117,000 a year isn’t much, but it is a lot to our office workers especially with the increasing cost of living. “How the decision to sack Robert and myself was reached raises all sorts of questions about the lack of democracy in BATU. A new regional organiser was appointed in January of this year and he is one of the scabs now crossing our picket line. Incredibly two weeks after his appointment it was announced that there was a financial crisis! Then at a meeting of the NEC the general secretary proposed a motion to give himself carte blanche powers to sack people and make any cost cutting measures he wanted. Leading officials voted on this motion at the NEC despite this being against the unions rules. “Our industrial action has ignited a wave of opposition from rank and file members of BATU to the current leadership of the union. Hundreds of members have attended meetings and protests in support of our fight for reinstatement. At the meetings there have been calls for the general secretary to resign and many people have raised the need for democratic accountability in how BATU is run. A rank and file group called BATU Concerned Members Action Group has been established to campaign for change in the union. “Following on from a meeting of a few hundred BATU members three of the union’s trustees took action and froze the union’s assets and finances. Subsequently Paddy O’Shaughnessy unsuccessfully tried to replace the trustees and force the bank to release funds. “The Dublin Council of Trades Unions unanimously passed a motion proposed by UNITE and seconded by SIPTU supporting our strike. We also received important pledges of support and money from unions at the trades council. “There is a lot of anger amongst the ranks of BATU about the direction the union has taken and in its decline. Our members in many workplaces including Pierce, Bowens and Barbarry have been phoning me for help and advice because they have refused to be represented by the scabs still working in head office. “BATU’s leading officials have serious questions to answer. Why is it that between 2002 and 2005 when the number of people working in the construction industry increased by 37% did the membership of BATU fall by 25%? BATU should be out there in a major recruitment drive. We should be engaging in battles defending the members and challenging the employers in the construction industry who are getting away with major attacks. The CIF want a 12 month pay freeze and a 33% wage cut for young people starting off. And what is the answer of the leading officials in BATU – sack two of their organisers and cut their office staff’s pay. “They tried to buy us off with a wad of cash but we aren’t going anywhere and with the support of the members behind us we can win reinstatement and take a big step towards turning BATU into a democratic fighting union.”

UP TO 20,000 members of IMPACT trade union began industrial action in May demanding the HSE end it’s recruitment embargo. 

Vulnerable children and sick patients are paying the price of the HSE’s employment embargo.  Because of unfilled posts, there are up to 250 cases of child neglect waiting to be dealt with by the HSE in Cork, but there aren’t enough social workers to handle the volume. 

The embargo has made the already bad situation worse where some of the most vulnerable and seriously ill people cannot access the critical services they need. 

The HSE hasn’t singled out any particular service for the embargo, but rather applied it across the board.  Rather than attracting too many more negative headlines by closing hospitals wards, hospitals, clinics or health centres, the HSE has not filled vacancies leaving health workers to deal with higher number of patients and cases.  The HSE believes the workers can do more with less, however, the result is that patients are suffering.

Along with social work, there are backlogs with Speech & Language therapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. These services are being stretched across different hospitals and geographical locations meaning staff have to cover in different locations, trying to treat too many people recovering from operations and accidents.

Those services are also going to suffer more since there are no new recruits being taken on. Students studying social care, child care, Speech & Language therapy, etc, (typically four year courses) and due to start training within the health service in the coming months, will not have any work despite a huge demand for these services.

IMPACT are planning a lunchtime march from the Cork University Hospital to offices of the HSE on 11 June to protest against the recruitment embargo.

All health trade unions, not just IMPACT should launch a strong and militant campaign not just to lift the embargo, but for a properly funded democratically run health service, not the bureaucratic nightmare created by Mary Harney.