Materialist History
15 – 27 April 1919: The Limerick Soviet. One a few “self-declared Irish soviets” from Ireland’s revolutionary period, situating it within the broader revolutionary history across Europe at the time. Kind of an Irish Paris Commune, the soviet, or workers’ council in charge of the general strike of the United Trades and Labour Council, ran the city of Limerick for a short period, printed money, set prices, and published newspapers. Sounds fun.
In Che Guevara’s Veins Flowed the Blood of Irish Rebels, via Jacobin.
Island of Ireland
Teacher unions conferences back industrial action over vaccine rollout. The three big teacher unions dominated the headlines for a while there after the government of the Republic announced they were switching from an employment-sector based vaccine rollout plan to an aged-based one.
The unions say “that ‘in the event that Government does not agree to schedule by the end of the current school year, vaccinations on the basis demanded above, Convention mandates a ballot of members for industrial action, up to and including strike action’.
The decision to switch the rollout program is supposed to be simpler and based on science. I’ll leave the science to the scientists, but simpler might be the best policy with this shower of room temperature IQs running the show. However, this whole Covid response fiasco really demonstrates how we should reconsider this dictatorship of the bourgeoisie set up we have right now. Meanwhile, Canada switched from an age-based vaccine rollout program to a frontline worker based program. Their decision was based on [checks notes] science.
There’s apparently a substitute teacher shortage in RoI, too.
ESB Technicians, Independent Workers Union. ESB technicians who are members of the Independent Workers Union (IWU) engaged in a “work-to-rule” industrial action on Monday, 19 April, RTE reports. The IWU, a relatively small union that operates outside of the ICTU umbrella due to dissatisfaction with the trade union movement in Ireland, claims to represent more than 500 of the 1200 ESB technicians. ESB management does not recognize the IWU and does not consider the action to be legitimate. ESB recognizes three unions: Connect, SIPTU, and UNITE. None of the recognized unions are in a dispute with management and are in active negations after members rejected a proposal late last year.
Working to rule means the members will not do on-call, overtime, or standby duties. Members engage in a 24-hour strike on Friday and two full days of strike action next week. So far, the ESB has said the impact is “minimal” after initially asking the union not to go ahead with the strike.
Irish Film Workers Association. Workers in the Irish Film Workers Association voted for industrial action, The Times reports. The crews are working on projects that include the Netflix show Valhala, a spin-off of Vikings. Targets include Metropolitan Films and World 2000, controlled by James Flynn and Morgan O'Sullivan respectively, for what the union claims is a "failure by the show’s producers to honour a profit-sharing agreement." Production is not currently shut down because the union says gardai, who have been acting against labour activism with a heavy hand lately, have told them not to picket under current covid-19 restrictions. Not incredibly inspiring despite the IFWA having "a reputation for being militant."
According to The Irish Times, Valhalla received a heck of a lot of film and television tax relief from the Revenue Commissioners last year. “Figures released by Revenue show that Metropolitan Films International secured tax reliefs of between €10 million and €30 million in 2020 for the Vikings spin-off, Valhalla.”
RTE Staff threaten to strike. After workers at the State Broadcaster overwhelmingly rejected a deal from management, members of the National Union of Journalists and Siptu “said there was a ‘militant’ and ‘resolute’ mood among the 1,800 workforce after they rejected a pay cuts package,” The Mail on Sunday reports via Extra.ie. RTE has actually been turning a profit lately, and they still want to go ahead with their plans for more cuts and screw the workers, it seems.
Carphone Warehouse redundancies. In yet another hit to retail workers since the beginning of the pandemic, Carphone Warehouse announced plans to shutter more than 80 stores in the Republic, which means nearly 500 people are losing their jobs, The Irish Times reports. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and has pledged support for affected workers, although what that means remains to be seen.
New legislation introduced. Solidarity & Socialist Party TD Mick Barry (Cork North Central) moved The Companies (Protection of Employees’ Rights in Liquidations) Bill 2021 passed the First Stage in Dáil Éireann on Wednesday 21 April 2021. The minister said “The Bill has been inspired by the struggles of the Debenhams workers,” on Twitter. Here’s a video of him introducing the bill and praising the efforts of the former Debebenhams workers. I haven’t looked into the new legislation closely yet to actually analyse the implications.
Travelodge evicting homeless familes. Reports on social media claim homeless residents in emergency accommodation at the Ballymun Travelodge. Fianna Fail TD Paul McAuliffe for Dublin North-West confirmed on Facebook that DCC intends to stop using the location for emergency accommodation effective 15 June. Some residents were told they had no more than two days to leave, according to reports coming from local People Before Profit representative Conor Reddy. Incidentally, Travelodge evicted homeless people from their hotels in the UK in particularly harsh fashion “because of Covid” even though the government there had said that’s not on.
This is a developing story.
Community Employment scheme supervisors pension talks. The Government seems willing to talk about settling this long-running dispute. Siptu organized workers had been threatening industrial action.
Community Job Activation Services sale. I’m not entirely sure if these are related, but SIPTU want “firm commitment from Minister [of State with responsibility for Social Inclusion in the Department of Social Protection, Joe O’Brien] to stop the sale of community job activation services.”
Jane Boushell (Siptu), is the sector organizer involved with the workers in both instances.
This was also covered by Ocean FM.
More links
Debenhams workers live with the trauma of liquidation one year on, via The Irish Times.
Talks held over 3 million euro retraining fund for former Debenhams staff, via RTE News.
'A historical legacy': Debenhams workers continue strike one year on from store closures, viaTheJournal.ie.
Camphill Duffcarrig care workers plan next industrial action, via Gorey Guardian.
Northern Irish trade union movement supports pharmacist campaigns, via the-pda.org.
Low Pay Commission to investigate move to €12.30 per hour living wage, via RTE News.
Bill to provide sick pay scheme for migrant workers launched, via Agriland.
Trust meeting told Northern Ireland doesn’t have budget for 4% NHS pay increase, via Derry Now.
UK General
Scottish health workers furious at union backing for 4 percent pay offer, via Socialist Worker.
Amazon’s relentless union-busting tactics have no place on our shores, via Left Foot Forward.
International
Blowout in Bessemer: A Postmortem on the Amazon Campaign. “The warning signs of defeat were everywhere.” By Jane McAlevey via The Nation.
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa, via World Socialist Web Site.