Greyhound workers hear calls for a national strike

Waste collections for thousands of homes in the Dublin 4 and 6 areas have been affected by a rally organised by striking Greyhound workers in Clondalkin.

Almost 80 workers, their families and supporters have been picketing the Greyhound recycling and recovery plant in Clondalkin since June in a dispute involving proposed wage cuts of up to 35 percent.

This morning workers claimed more than 100 new employees had been recruited by the company, at lower rates of pay, since 78 people refused to accept the pay cuts in June.

As the rally got underway supporters waved placards urging people to reject “scab Labour” and to “remember the 1913 Dublin lockout”.

Strike committee member Ray Reilly said the company seemed to have recently recruited a number of workers from eastern Europe to work in the Clondalkin premises, a move which he claimed was in response to the disparity in wages between Ireland and eastern Europe. He called on the company which he said had shifted its accounts to the Isle of Man, to publish the profit and loss account of the business.

Fellow committee member Paul Murray said the strike was about achieving “a living wage, not a minimum wage”.

Socialist TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the rally it was time for a “national workers’ time stoppage” in support of the striking workers.

Mr Boyd Barrett said Siptu president Jack O'Connor had accepted the dispute was about employers driving down wages "but not much has happened since then". Mr Boyd Barrett said it was time for unions to organise a general strike as happened in the Irish Ferries dispute some years ago. "There is a belief that the company is taking advantage of austerity to drive down wages and that is happening across the board, and everybody should support the Greyhound workers for that reason" he said.

The rally was also addressed by Eamon Devoy of the Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union TEEU, Tina McVeigh of People Before Profit and councillor Daithi Doolan of Sinn Féin, all of whom called for widespread support for the striking Greyhound workers.

In a communication delivered to householders in Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 Greyhound said there would be delays in collections “due to continuous incidents where our collection vehicles are being blocked by groups of protesters and picketers”. The company said the situation was out of its control and “in the hands of the political groups and striking employees involved”.