November/ Vol.15 No. 6 December 2016 ISSN 0791-458X Public Water SIPTU in Trumped? Referendum Belfast Page 20 Page 5 Page 6-7 Demand Better Pay, DecentJobs by Scott Millar Private sector workers will win the fight for better pay and greater job security by organising in a union and taking collective action, was the message delivered this month to delegates at the SIPTU Services Division Biennial Delegate Conference. Addressing delegates representing private sector workers employed in hotels, cleaning, warehousing, security and many other industries in Liberty Hall on 24th November, Services Division Organiser, Ethel Buckley, said: “Uncertain, precarious employment and the trend to- Members of the Justice for Clerys Workers campaign and supporters protest outside Clerys Department Store, North wards casualisation so brutally exemplified by the zero hours contract, Earl Street, Dublin 1, on Friday, 25th November. The protest highlighted the opening of a section of the store as a the growth of bogus self-employment and bogus freelancing is a blight shopping storage area for the Christmas period while the new owners continue to refuse to meet the workers they on Irish society and poses a real threat to thousands of families across made redundant, without notice or the payment of their legal entitlements, in June 2015. Speaking at the SIPTU this country. Services Division conference a day earlier, Divisional Organiser, Ethel Buckley, said that “the union stands four “SIPTU is seeking to tackle precarity. We believe that workers are en- square behind the Clerys workers and the country stands four square behind this union on this issue.” titled to the protection of proper employment contracts. No worker Photo: Dan O’Neill should be forced to accept a contract which describes them as self-em- ployed when they meet all the tests of an employee.” Buckley said that the strategy of the Services Division is to engage Big Start Brexit and Crossword 5 6 3 4 with the Joint Labour Committee system and secure new Employment 1 2 8 Regulation Orders (EROs) for categories of workers. As an example of Page 31 demands Ireland 10 13 what this approach can achieve, Buckley highlighted the success of 1 12 14 16 Page 8 Page 14 5 SIPTU negotiators in securing a 10.77% basic pay increase in the new 17 19 20 8 Continued on page 2 22 1 WORKERS RIGHTS CENTRE 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., Monday - Friday [email protected] 2 Liberty In this month’sLiberty NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 News Housing Crisis Fidel’s inspiring legacy Page 9 By Frank Connolly people on Fidel’s death. The death of Fidel Cas- “Cuba achieved tro marked the passing 100% literacy many of one of the most influ- years ago and built ential and iconic revolu- up a health system that is one the most Liberty View tionary figures of admired in the Liberty modern times who in- world. With eco- Page 18-19 spired millions of pro- nomic growth rates gressive activists across similar to many View the world. other Latin Ameri- Under his leadership, the can countries, in- Cuban people developed a equality and modern society where the poverty are much Media chill - health, welfare and educa- less pronounced in Lyn Boylan tion of working people and Cuba than in sur- rounding nations,” Page 12 their children were the prior- ity for government in con- President Higgins trast to the poverty, said. “The economic exploitation and repression Photo: Fidel Castro on board his flight from that existed under the US Havana while arriving in Moscow in the 1960s and social reforms Division backed Batista regime which he in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. introduced were at and his comrades ousted in South African army in Angola in the price of a restriction of civil Conferences 1959. the late 1980s and ultimately society, which brought its critics. Page 10-11 Despite numerous attempts by brought an end to apartheid. Fidel Castro was of a generation US based Cuban exiles to under- He offered to send forces to of leaders that sought to offer an mine the revolution, including Chile when Salvadore Allende alternative global economic and with the failed invasion at the was faced with a threat to his social order. He was President of Bay of Pigs in 1961, and hun- democratically elected govern- the Non-Aligned Movement and dreds of assassination attempts ment by CIA backed generals be- a leading figure in international Health news on his life, as well as the decades fore the coup in 1973 and gatherings that sought a more assisted revolutionary move- Page 22 long and crippling economic equal world of trade, rejected blockade by the US, Castro ments across Latin America in odious debt and sought an inde- helped to build a unique form of their struggle against brutal right pendent path to development.” socialism on the Caribbean is- wing dictatorships. SIPTU General President, Jack land of eleven million people. Cuban doctors and other pro- O’Connor, described the former The collapse of the Soviet fessionals are present in many of Cuban president “as an inspira- Turkish Union in 1989 was a devastating the regions most damaged by tion for people everywhere who blow to the growing economy natural disasters, poverty and aspired to a better world based emergency while the more recent disrup- under development including on equality and mutual interde- Page 25 tion of oil and other support neighbouring Caribbean and cen- pendence. He and the achieve- from a struggling Venezuela has tral American countries wracked ments of the Cuban revolution intensified the difficulties and by poverty and violence. provide a beacon of hope for the hardship caused by the trade On his death, the right wing primacy of the higher human blockade. media on both sides of the At- characteristics of human society Notwithstanding these obsta- lantic embarked on a rampage of over primal greed. Sport cles, Castro supported anti-colo- ill-informed hysteria including “His life epitomised the strug- Page 30 nial and liberation movements in Ireland where some politi- gle for the realisation of a new across the world, with Cuban cians and commentators criti- and universally progressive level troops winning the decisive mil- cised the remarks of President of development and resistance itary victories that defeated the Michael D Higgins when he of- to all forms of oppression.” fered his sympathy to the Cuban Continued from page 1 - Demand Better Pay, Decent Jobs ERO for contract cleaners. whichever is the higher figure. next year. This demand runs in Editor: Frank Connolly, SIPTU Head of Communications Union members are also secur- This advice will take into ac- parallel with our campaign to Journalist: Scott Millar ing pay rises by lodging local pay count productivity, inflation and leverage accelerated pay restora- Design: Sonia Slevin (SIPTU), Joe Mitchell (Brazier Media) & Niki O’Brien claims on employers, with Buckley wage growth figures. Unions will tion in the public service. More- Publications Assistant: Deirdre Price saying this approach was “paying be expected to pursue claims of over, it is entirely consistent with Administrative Assistant: Karen Hackett dividends” with a 5% pay increase this level in order to assist wider the industrial and political strategy Produced, designed, edited and printed by trade union labour. recently secured in one hotel and economic recovery by increasing we have pursued since the eco- Printed by The Irish Times, City West, Dublin. similar rises achieved for members workers spending power. Rises of nomic collapse of 2008.” Liberty is dedicated to providing a platform for progressive news and views. in contract catering. this level will also protect stan- He added: “Against the back- If you have any ideas for articles or comments please contact: [email protected] The demand for pay rises of a dards of living and give workers a ground of a gradually recovering Liberty is published by the Services, Industrial, Professional & Technical Union, similar level are set to increase share of overall increased eco- economy we are back on the offen- Liberty Hall, Dublin 1 across the private sector with Con- nomic productivity. sive.” See pages 18-19 SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor • Vice President, Gene Mealy• General Secretary, Joe O’Flynn gress shortly to circulate to affiliate Writing in Liberty, SIPTU General Production: SIPTU Communications Department, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1, unions advice on the case for pay President, Jack O’Connor, said: Tel: 01 8588217 • Email: [email protected] claims expected to be in the order “SIPTU fully supports the call to of €1,000 annually or 4%, ramp up pay increases to 4% from Liberty 3 News NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 Progress in RTÉ Strike ballots authorised talks with station management on public service pay The SIPTU National Executive called on “the Government to open found that pay restoration was The Trade Union Group “It has been agreed that Council (NEC) has authorised negotiations with a view to amend- their primary concern. This could union and management repre- (TUG) has reported some negotiating groups of the ing the Lansdowne Road Agree- be brought about through the abo- sentatives will enter into com- progress in negotiations union within the public serv- ment”. lition of the pension levy and pay prehensive discussions on this with management regard- ice to begin balloting their It added: “An agreement must be progression for low and middle matter in line with our agree- members for industrial ac- relevant to the circumstances earners. They also highlighted the ing the proposed closure ments. Discussions will con- tion on 1st December, if the which prevail during the period of need for pay justice for new en- of the Young Peoples De- clude no later than 31st its application.