NEWS
Step Up and be counted!
Mandate launches search for Member Organisers “WE must work to build an army of activists” was the cry from the podium at our conference in Wexford earlier this year. Delegates spoke time and time again about the urgent need to tackle those employers who treat workers – and their union – with contempt. our exciting and innovative Step Up Programme is the first in a series of bold initiatives to promote activism from within the union and to demonstrate our intention to place workers at the heart of our union. Member organisers will be deeply involved in our campaigns, in our organising, in our industrial relations strategy and in our training and development.
Purpose of the Step Up programme... Mandate’s member organising programme will provide a development opportunity for activists to be seconded from their job to Mandate for a period of time to help activate our current membership, to work and learn alongside our organising team and to organise and recruit non-union workers. The Member organiser will develop new skills that will help them to be effective workplace leaders, have a better understanding of how their union works and learn why workers gain power at work through forming and/or joining a union. In essence joining our organising department as a Member or-
INDUSTRIAL NEWS
ganiser for a period of time will equip individuals with all the skills needed to help make a real difference in the lives of thousands of undervalued and underemployed retail workers. Why Mandate Member Organisers are important... Member organisers will work on a range of different aspects of organising campaigns. They will spend dedicated time with experienced
union organisers learning the fundamentals of organising before returning to their original workplaces and putting that learning into practice. Members are very effective in helping organise other retail workers. They have the advantage of being able to establish a higher level of trust with non-union workers because they can speak from personal experience. Member organisers will understand and relate to the problems faced by other workers on the job and will learn to explain how being a union member can help make postive changes in the workplace to deal with those problems. This is the first initiative under the Step Up Programme, which is
centred around the principle of building and developing capacity within the ranks of our own membership base.
Get Involved... Mandate would encourage members in the participating companies of Penneys, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Brown Thomas, Shaws and Superquinn to check details of the Step Up initiative on our website www.mandate.ie and if you think you have what it takes to become a Member organiser, then start filing out that application straight away. Mandate wishes to extend thanks to all participating companies for their agreement to facilitate release for successful candidates. fOr MOre INfO - See BACK PAGe
3% Dunnes claim goes before Labour Court A 3% WAGE claim lodged by Mandate on behalf on its 4,000 members who work at Dunnes Stores has been referred to the Labour Court for binding arbitration. The move follows Dunnes management’s refusal to engage with the union on the issue. Mandate Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light told Shopfloor: “Not surprisingly the company has yet again failed to respond to a reasonable request from the union to meet on a matter which is of significant importance to our members. “This, in itself, is a fundamental breach of procedures agreed between the union and the company as far back as 1996. In 2009, following a complaint from the union, the Labour Court recommended that both parties should adhere to the 1996 agreement and consider a request to meet when required to do so by the other party. “Notwithstanding this clear state-
Why I’m in Mandate... ‘Workers are stronger together because in a union workers have a voice’
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Keith Leonard, Tesco, Castlebar
ment by the court, Dunnes senior management continue to blatantly ignore requests from their workers’ representatives in order to consider matters which are of concern to them.” he added: “The claim for a wage increase at this time is entirely legitimate given what has recently happened in a number of major Irish retailers in that they have conceded claims from the union for wage increases. “It must also not be forgotten that – ironically – many of our members, including those employed in Dunnes, are actually working harder now than they did during the boom years. “This is based on the reality that retailers have dramatically reduced working hours and overall staff numbers, thus spreading the burden among fewer workers.” Mr Light slammed the “intolerable atti-
tude” displayed by senior management at Dunnes towards the union “and, by association, our many thousands of members employed there”. he claimed that members at Dunnes would “in the very near future” reach a breaking point “which will result in an appropriate and meaningful response”. In his letter to the Labour Relations Commission, harry Mullen, who heads up human resources at Dunnes, claimed no discourtesy was intended by the company’s refusal to attend a conciliation conference. Mr Light added: “one can only assume that this comment was directed at the Commission itself because the persistent failure of the company to engage with the union most certainly constitutes a most discourteous and dismissive attitude towards the large numbers of our members who work there.”
TULF exposé on politics of privatisation
ThE Trade Union Left Forum has published an exposé of the political motivation that lies behind the drive to sell off state companies. The booklet, titled Privatisation – Robbing The People’s Wealth, is the group’s first publication and was coauthored by National College of Ireland lecturer Colin Whitson and Jimmy Nolan, who chairs the TULF. Mandate National Co-ordinator Brian Forbes described the publication as “essential reading” and a timely analysis. he told Shopfloor:
“The ideas outlined in the pamphlet take on greater significance with the present government stepping up its drive to privatise key state companies and to further commercialise vital public services. “As we know from the experience of other countries where
Dunnes Stores head office in Dublin Picture:Informatique (CC BY-SA 2.0)
privatisation has taken place, the result will be increased profits for private corporations, increased charges for citizens, reduced services, and heavy job losses, which in Ireland can only add further to the deep economic crisis of the system.” The publication on the politics of privatisation is the outcome of a TULF seminar and contains case study on the ESB and the
impact of Government privatising policies over the last decade and a half. The Trade Union Left Forum was set up in 2011 and brings together activists from all levels of the trade union movement to debate issues facing the movement from a workingclass viewpoint Mr Forbes added: “This booklet is essential reading for those on the left who care to understand more about the insidious privatisation agenda of this government.” www.tuleftforum.com SHOPFLOOR
y October 2012