Unions call on members to back striking dockers at Dublin Port

SEVERE DISRUPTION is expected in Dublin docks this morning as the Dublin Council of Trade Unions calls on members to join a demonstration in support of striking Siptu members.

The striking dockers, in dispute with cargo handlers Marine Terminals Ltd (MTL), are planning protest marches from different points to converge in a mass rally at the Marine Terminals depot.

Siptu said the marches will start at the O2 on the North Wall, St Joseph’s School, East Wall, and Ray’s Shop in Ringsend. Container traffic to and from the port, as well as motorists using the East Link bridge, are expected to be disrupted for at least two hours.

Meanwhile, Siptu claimed the company has begun posting P45 forms to the strikers, effectively dismissing them. A spokesman said the first P45s arrived on Friday and seven workers had confirmed receiving them so far.

Siptu branch organiser Oliver McDonagh has described the move “as another intimidatory exercise designed to break the will of the strikers. This makes it all the more essential for other trade unionists in the port, and elsewhere, to support our struggle. We are appealing to anyone who is free on Monday morning to join the protest marches”.

Mr McDonagh said that when the union met management briefly last week “they gave no indication that they intended issuing these P45s, which represents a serious escalation in the dispute. What originally provoked strike action was a decision by the company to give the workers a 48-hour deadline to either accept redundancy or sign up for drastically poorer pay and conditions”.

The owner of Peel Ports Marine Terminals, the second largest ports operator on these islands, says striking workers enjoy significant salaries and were being offered a lucrative redundancy package.

The company has said the salaries enjoyed by MTL’s port operatives were up to €75,000 for crane operators and were way above their counterparts elsewhere in the Dublin Port and in the industry generally.

The company said redundancies were “due to reductions in port traffic and customer demands for efficiencies and greater flexibility”.

It said it offered up to €60,000 plus overtime, together with enhanced redundancy packages of €75,000.