Thursday, 14 January, 2021
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These days in Irish history
12 January 1729 - Old Whig and French Revolution opinion-haver Edmund Burke is born in Aran Quay, Dublin. Not super interested in the abolition of class society, but Marx was a few years off when Edmund was kicking around.
Welcome to the first edition of Demands Most Moderate. Read the About page to get a sense of what I’m trying to do here. For now, I think I’ll keep things pretty simple and build from there. If you all keep reading, I promise this newsletter will get better.
Let's get started.
Republic of Ireland
Debenham's workers strike. Number of days on strike - 233 (official), 280 (days out)
Former Debenham's workers have rejected the Labour Court proposal. In December of last year, a Labour Court Chairman Kevin Foley recommended a deal that"would see €3 million provided to workers who lost their jobs this year as part of a fund for training, education, career guidance and business startups,” thejournal.ie reports. This proposal is a far cry from the just redundancy packages the workers are demanding. According to Mandate, the trade union representing the Debenham's workers, 430 people cast a vote with 37 people voting to accept the Labour Court's deal and 393 voting to reject it, or more than 90 percent. That's a pretty resounding "no." This strike has shown real militancy and resolve throughout. This is the latest example of the worker’s commitment to not only winning their just compensation after years of service, but also a significant win for the cause of labour in Ireland.
The union says converting the fund into direct cash payments, coupled with favorable labour legislation, could see the dispute could come to an end. I'm not sure how likely that is. Given the Labour Court's inability to come even close to providing the demand of two weeks enhanced redundancy plus two weeks of statutory redundancy per year of service. Apparently, shop stewards consider using the funds for cash payments as the bare minimum.
In the meantime, it's obvious that the government's primary interest is not in protecting or uplifting workers, but in fulfilling their role as political managers of capital. Stewart J. Smyth used the Debenham's strike as a case study for a presentation at this year’s Alternative Accounts Europe Conference. I haven't found the presentation, but you can download the PowerPoint here. Smyth’s objective in the presentation is "to develop an analysis of the ways in which KPMG, the former Debenham's workers and state apparatuses interact," particularly around insolvency practices in Ireland.
The public health doctors strike originally planned for the 14th of January has been deferred, RTE reports, but the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called for the nationalization of private hospitals. The call comes as part of the INMO Executive's "five-point emergency government intervention." Citing “unprecedented” pressure, the union's elected representatives have called for interventions that cover PPE, nationalization, childcare and vaccine prioritization for health care workers, and pay.
The five points:
1. Increased safety standards: Upgrade level of PPE in healthcare settings to FFP2 masks, and an end to policy allowing asymptomatic close contacts return to work.
2. Private hospital capacity to be fully nationalised into the public system, providing additional beds and staffing to the service in the coming weeks. Current government plans are to use only a third of this capacity.
3. Childminding provision to allow parents of schoolchildren attend work. This could take the form of partial school reopening for families of healthcare staff or an expansion of after-school care. This need is particularly acute among members with children in primary school.
4. Healthcare worker vaccination priority to be continued, with a latest date set for when all healthcare workers will have received the vaccine.
5. Protections and pay for nursing and midwifery students and interns who are facing high COVID risks on no or unacceptably low pay, in many cases without necessary employment rights and protections.
From the Sunday Business Post, the Alphabet Worker's Union (Alphabet is Google’s parent company) officially launched this week. Google’s European head office is in Dublin, so that’s probably worth keeping tabs on. A Jacobin article on the union makes it seems like it might be mostly a US thing for now but the union is supposedly open to all Alphabet workers inclusing temps, vendors, and contractors (TVCs), which is a lot of people. Last summer, Google told their Dublin staff that unionizing was a bad idea, but that’s kind of what you’d expect them to say.
Northern Ireland
Management and trade union reps have agreed to suspend industrial action related to the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council workers strike for pay equity after tabling a proposal from management. This comes only days after talks broke down between management and the four unions involved; the GMB, Unite, SIPTU, and NIPSA.
General UK
Starmer supporter plans bid for leadership of Unite union
UK Government rejects EU offer for visa-free touring for UK musicians.
The Unite History Project is looking for your stories.
Scotland
Scottish taxi driver begs for some kind of help, any kind of help, from anyone.
England
International
Bad news from down under. That’s not wage theft… This is wage theft!
A recently released McKell Institute study entitled Blue Harvest exposes widespread wage theft in the Coffs Coast region of northern New South Wales. Located halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, the area grows 65 percent of Australia’s blueberry crop.
Workers Struggles: Global, from the WSWS.
Workers Struggles: The Americas, from the WSWS.