IRSP on Irish Ferries dispute

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Friday December 09, 2005 14:47 by Seán MacRuadhán - IRSM sp at rsym dot org 392 Falls Road, Belfast

IRSP fully supports day of action on Friday 9 of December.

The Irish Republican Socialist Party fully support the day of action against Irish Ferries called for on Friday 9th December. We also call for a boycott of Irish Ferries in solidarity with the workers. These workers are currently locked in a dispute, which goes to the roots of what the Trade Union Movement is all about. The dispute began back in September when Irish Ferries announced it was looking to replace 543 Irish workers with foreign agency staff, who would be required to work longer hours for much lower wages. This is known as out-sourcing and is just a part of the overall economic liberal agenda that also includes free trade and the wholesale privatisation of all publicly owned assets.

The dispute escalated on November 24 when so-called security personnel employed by Irish Ferries escorted Eastern European seafarers onboard the Isle of Inishmore in Pembroke and the Ulysses in Holyhead, Wales, leading to protests on both vessels.

Irish Ferries has put into action a deliberate plan to smash the unions and give itself a free hand to ratchet up their profits over the coming years at the expense of workers’ livelihoods and working conditions. Irish Ferries is valued at €228m. It made profits of €26m in 2004 and has projected profits of €20m this year. The plan is being spearheaded by Managing Director Eamonn Rothwell who took home €687,000 last year alone! No low pay for him!

Furthermore, Irish Ferries intends to go ahead with the redundancies regardless of talks. It has also stated its intention to re-flag its vessels under the flag of Cyprus, which would mean it would not be bound by 26 County laws to pay its employees the minimum wage. Bertie Ahearn leader of the 26 County Government has said he cannot do anything to prevent this despite that fact that article 91 of the UN Law of the Sea states that a company using a country's flag must have a link with that country.

The stance of Irish ferries and the Government is backed up by the Independent Group of newspapers owned by media mogul, Tony O’Reilly. This is the same group of newspapers that supported Dublin employers during the famous lockout of Dublin workers in 1913 when the workers were led by Jim Larkin and James Connolly. William Martin Murphy, leader of the Employer's Federation, who staged the lockout
called for the execution of James Connolly after the 1916 uprising. His wishes were granted.

”The group's industry correspondent, Gerry Flynn, was taken off the Irish Ferries story after the ferry company denied a report he wrote in the November 26 edition of the Irish Independent. The paper also decided not to publish a column critical of Irish Ferries written by staff journalist, Justine McCarthy. She was also told her weekly column was to be dropped.”( Saturday November 26, 2005
The Guardian