Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 13 Feabhra / February 2008
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
http://saoirse.info
In this issue:
1. RSF welcomes acquittal of Fermanagh Republican
2. Sinn Féin Storms Craigavon ‘DPP’ Meeting
3. Mansfield bolsters Finucane campaign
4. Paisley jnr on father’s payroll
5. Building workers defend right to join union
6. Closure of Batchelor’s is a dark day for Athy
7. Unions to seek equal rights for agency workers
8. Union protest at AIBP meat plant
9. Labour Court to quash hotel pay order
10. Underground power line to be allowed along M3/N3?
1. RSF WELCOMES ACQUITTAL OF FERMANAGH REPUBLICAN
ON February 11 Republican Sinn Féin welcomed the acquittal of Ard-Chomhairle member John Joe McCusker. The prosecution offered no evidence against John Joe McCusker, Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh to justify charges of involvement in bomb attacks in Lurgan and Roslea, and of IRA membership.
RSF National Publicity Officer, Richard Walsh, said:
“Regrettably John Joe had to endure eight-and-a-half months’ incarceration in Maghaberry as a result of these unsubstantiated charges, inevitably causing severe disruption to family life. The McCusker family were left with this hanging over them for nearly three years. We hope that the British authorities will now leave them in peace to rebuild their lives.
“Republican Sinn Féin believes that such malicious prosecutions can only be ended finally when the English government has the honesty and decency to recognise that their continued presence in Ireland is the greatest crime being perpetrated against the Irish people. This must be demonstrated by a declaration of intent to withdraw permanently from Ireland.”
2. SINN FÉIN STORMS CRAIGAVON ‘DPP’ MEETING
AT least forty people attended a Republican Sinn Féin protest during a public meeting of Craigavon’s so-called “District Policing Partnership”, held at St. Anthony’s Hall, Legahory Centre, Craigavon, Co. Armagh on the night of Thursday, February 7.
The meeting was initially picketed, and the protesters later entered the venue en masse. They made clear their opposition to the body, which acts in collaboration with the British colonial police, and also voiced their anger at the arrests of members and supporters of Republican Sinn Féin (including the Chairperson of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster RSF Executive) in Newry and Jonesboro during the week. The organisation also congratulated the youth of Newry for their resistance to the prolonged British invasion of the area.
RSF have since learned of a sixth arrest in the area.
3. MANSFIELD BOLSTERS FINUCANE CAMPAIGN
RELATIVES of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane on February 12 marked the 19th anniversary of the killing by pressing British prime minister Gordon Brown and British Six-County Direct Ruler Shaun Woodward for a full inquiry.
An international public inquiry was recommended by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory who investigated the case in 2004. The British government however, subsequently passed legislation enabling much of any such inquiry’s findings to be withheld from publication.
The Finucane family opposed this and repeated calls for an inquiry to be held under existing legislation. Former London police chief Sir John Stevens concluded a number of investigations into collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the British state. However, the vast bulk of his findings are being kept secret.
The Finucanes have also announced that international human rights lawyers Michael Mansfield and Richard Harvey are to join their legal team.
Michael Finucane, the eldest son of Pat Finucane who is a Dublin-based solicitor, said: “The British government promised to establish an independent public inquiry following the recommendations of Justice Peter Cory. Britain then delayed the establishment of the inquiry to pass new legislation that gives control to its own ministers.
“Our legal team are tasked with ensuring the inquiry will not be reduced to a state vehicle for suppression. Secret justice is no justice at all.”
In a statement Michael Mansfield said the significance of the murder of Pat Finucane could not be underestimated.
“The extent to which collusion existed between Britain and loyalist paramilitaries is deeply shocking, and all the more so when employed in the murder of an officer of the court to stop him from doing his job, and to deter others from doing theirs.”
Richard Harvey added: “Nineteen years ago, I attended Pat Finucane’s funeral in Belfast. It is unconscionable that successive governments have failed to conduct an independent inquiry. There can be no whitewash in this case and we will not allow another anniversary of this murder to pass without the government being called to account.”
The legal appointments and the raising of the issue on the occasion of the anniversary are being seen as a bid by the Finucanes to push the British government into action and to end the impasse over the type of inquiry to be held.
The family has already succeeded in pressing for a joint resolution to be passed by both houses of the US Congress. However, there has been little movement on the question of an inquiry since 2005.
4. PAISLEY JNR ON FATHER’S PAYROLL
IT was reported on February 6 that the Democratic Unionist Party’s Ian Paisley Junior had confirmed he receives a salary from Westminster as a researcher for his North Antrim MP father. It is one of three jobs that Ian Paisley jnr has, something which has been described as “bizarre”.
5. BUILDING WORKERS DEFEND RIGHT TO JOIN UNION
BUILDING workers in Athy, Co Kildare are locked in a dispute with E&E Construction since January 30 when three men were laid off. The company claimed it was because of lack of work, however, the building workers say that two employees who were due to start on the site that day overheard a meeting in the office, where it was stated that the men were being let go because they were union members. Those taking part in the picket also said that they were asked by the sub-contractor to sign an undertaking not to join a union.
Since then workers have placed a picket on the building site as well as picketing the offices of Athy Town Council.
Local building firm E&E Construction were sub-contracted by McInerney Homes Ltd to carry out the work on the Respond – Community Housing Development scheme, at Ardrew, Athy.
In a statement, E&E Construction said that the situation in Athy “is not as it has been presented. Last Monday (January 28) we took on two self-employed block layers on short-term sub-contract basis agreed by all parties. The following day they sought material change in the terms under which they were engaged and on that basis the contracts were terminated.”
Secretary of the Carlow Branch of the Bricklayer’s Union (BATU) Ned Costigan said: “They are basically admitting our case there. They can only employ PAYE workers under the terms of the Registered Employment Agreement.” BATU are also in possession of a letter dated January 30, in which E&E Construction state they will not issue any payments to sub-contractors without paper invoices. However, only self-employed people can issue invoices,
According to the Building & Allied trade union (BATU) the sub-contractor is in breach of six clauses of the Registered Employment Agreement (Construction Industry Wages and Conditions of Employment) Variation Order, 2006. Amongst these is the stipulation the employer must “employ the appropriate grades of trade union labour”.
BATU informed McInerney Homes Ltd, the Construction Industry Federation and the County Manager of Kildare Co Council of this in a letter dated December 6.
Ned Costigan says that the union have had concerns about the site since October. “I wrote to Kildare County Council explaining my concerns. They replied and said that details of the alleged breach had been referred to Respond! Housing Association for investigation.”
BATU has sought a meeting with McInerney Homes Ltd regarding the employment of bricklayers on the site.
Spokesman for the workers JJ Murphy called on members of the Plasterer’s Union and the Electrician’s Union to support the picket.
In a statement the Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton said: “Republican Sinn Féin fully supports the ongoing protest by building workers outside the Respond – Community Housing Development Scheme at Ardrew in Athy. Once again the rights of working people as set out in law are being undermined with impunity by employers.
“The sub-contractor according to the builder’s union BATU is in breach of six clauses of the Registered Employment Agreement, including the right of workers to be a member of a trade union as the agreement states clearly: ‘They must employ the appropriate grades of trade union labour.’
“Despite this workers have been locked out of the site at Ardrew, Athy, since January 30 because they are members of a trade union. The local authorities both Kildare Co Council and Athy Town Council have a clear responsibility to ensure that both the contractor and sub-contractor fully comply with all employment regulations.
“Across the board the rights, pay and conditions of working people are under attack, even in cases such as this where they are supposedly protected by legislation or agreement. If the trade movement do not meet this challenge head on the hard fought for rights of all workers will be lost.”
6. CLOSURE OF BATCHELOR’S IS A DARK DAY FOR ATHY
On February 8 Des Dalton also condemned the closure of Batchelor’s factory in Athy
He said: “The announcement on February 8 that Batchelor’s is to close its pea processing plant in Athy with the loss of 16 jobs marks a dark day in the economic history of Athy. For working people one of their most valued assets is their job, the loss of what has been a long valued local employment is a huge blow for the people of Athy.
“The closure of the Batchelor’s factory is also a setback for the local farming community and coming so soon after the closure of the Carlow Sugar factory is another sign that Irish agriculture as a result of EU policy is under threat.
“In recent years Athy has lost several industries such as Shuttleworth and Peerless Rugs, without any of these jobs being replaced. Such haemorrhaging of jobs if unchecked will cripple the economic life of our town.”
7. UNIONS TO SEEK EQUAL RIGHTS FOR AGENCY WORKERS
SIPTU president Jack O’Connor has warned there will be no further social partnership agreements unless agency workers are granted equal rights that are enshrined in law.
Jack O’Connor said agency workers were being abused by employers, many of whom were creating conditions akin to slavery.
Jack O’Connor said agency workers were being abused by employers, many of whom were creating conditions akin to slavery.
“The present situation is unacceptable,” the SIPTU leader told a meeting of union members on the issue in Waterford on February 11. “We have a deplorable system of rented labour at present in which vulnerable people have effectively no employment rights in practical terms.”
He said tens of thousands of workers were affected with “rogue agencies” reducing the security and quality of employment rights. The practice impacted all workers.
“This phenomenon is sometimes defended on the grounds of protecting flexibility and meeting the competitiveness challenge. It does nothing of the kind. In fact, the reverse is the case, because it is deferring the day when we have to face up to the urgent need to launch a major national effort to upskill more than 500,000 workers in our economy.”
He said society needed to stop thinking in terms of retraining for workers and begin working towards a system with access to third-level education for all workers.
It was only with this mindset change that people would reach their potential and the economy would be capable of meeting what he termed “the competitiveness challenge”.
“Even a commitment in Towards 2016 to establish a fund to assist workers who had not been to third level with the cost of their educational fees has not yet been honoured,” Jack O’Connor continued.
“There will be no further social partnership agreement unless the principle of equality of treatment for agency workers is conceded in accordance with the standards that apply within the most advanced EU countries.”
The meeting in Waterford city was the latest in a number of meetings organised by SIPTU on the issue of securing better conditions for agency workers.
The union, Ireland’s biggest, believes agency workers generally have little or no job security, have little or no access to sick pay or pension entitlements or to other non-pay benefits.
Their rates of pay are generally lower than that of the regular workforce and collective representation or negotiations has proven difficult to achieve.
8. UNION PROTEST AT AIBP MEAT PLANT
MEMBERS of the trade union Unite held a protest outside an AIBP meat-processing plant in Clones, Co Monaghan, on February 8 to demand better pay and conditions for a group of predominantly migrant workers.
Unite organiser Jim Quinn alleged that workers at one of the company’s Clones plants, who were doing the same job as colleagues in the company’s other sites, were being paid at a lower rate.
“AIBP recently opened a new boning plant in Clones where we know [it] is paying lesser terms and conditions, to mainly migrant workers, than those in the existing plant in Clones,” he said.
About 20 people took part in the protest, and Unite said it would be raising its concerns with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions next week.
AIBP invested up to €10 million in the Clones plant in 2007. It currently employs 185 in this facility and says a further 80 new jobs will be created in the coming year.
9. LABOUR COURT TO QUASH HOTEL PAY ORDER
IN A blow to low paid hotel workers and with possible implications for those on the minimum wage, the 26-County Labour Court has agreed to quash an order it made in November fixing the wages and working conditions of some 25,000 low-paid hotel workers outside Dublin and Cork.
It is to reconsider the matter as part of the settlement on February 7 of a High Court challenge to the order by the Irish Hotels Federation and a Co Clare hotelier.
The settlement of the action also means the IHF is not now proceeding with its challenge to the constitutionality of industrial relations laws under which the Labour Court order - and other orders affecting the wages and conditions of an estimated 250,000 workers - was made.
The IHF, hotelier Michael Vaughan and Vaughan Lodge Ltd, which operates the Vaughan Lodge Hotel in Lahinch, had brought a judicial review challenge to the manner in which a statutory minimum wage and working conditions were fixed last November for some 25,000 hotel workers outside Dublin, Dún Laoghaire and Cork.
In proceedings brought against the Hotels Joint Labour Committee, the Labour Court, the 26-County state and the 26-County Attorney General, with Siptu as a notice party, the applicants also challenged the constitutionality of the laws under which the hotels JLC and Labour Court made their decisions.
Under the 26-County Industrial Relations Acts 1946 and 1990, the hotels JLC and the Labour Court have powers to make and approve proposals fixing wage rates and conditions of employment which are then binding.
It was claimed those laws were “coercive” of employers and impermissibly delegated the 26-County state’s law-making powers to the Labour Court. The 26-County state rejected such claims and also pleaded that if the laws did interfere with employers’ property rights, such interference was in the interests of social justice and the common good.
On the third day of the hearing, Justice Bryan McMahon was told the proceedings were resolved on consent on terms including the quashing of the Employer Regulation Order made by the Labour Court in November last on foot of proposals of the hotels JLC.
The order was quashed on the ground that the Hotels JLC had failed to forward to the Labour Court a September 2007 IHF submission on wages and conditions of hotel staff.
The settlement terms also include an order that the applicants would be paid their costs, including reserved costs. In those circumstances, the sides also agreed it was not necessary to determine the other issues raised in the proceedings.
The central issue in the case was whether the Labour Court acted correctly in deciding that pay increases due to workers under the Towards 2016 26-County wage agreement should be applied after application of the national minimum wage legislation to pay rates.
The IHF had argued that the Towards 2016 increases should be applied prior to application of the minimum wage legislation. The disputed order by the Labour Court would result in the workers receiving pay increases of a maximum 22 cent per hour in some cases as little a 9 cent per hour.
10. UNDERGROUND POWER LINE TO BE ALLOWED ALONG M3/N3?
IT was reported on February 6 that there had been a development in the controversy surrounding the EirGrid proposals to erect high-voltage power lines across County Meath.
26-County Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey had asked the NRA to look at the possibility of burying the cables along the route of the M3 motorway currently under
EirGrid`s proposed power lines are also covering a similar route, from Woodland, Drumree, near Dunshaughlin, to Kingscourt in Cavan. In a letter to the minister, Fred Barry, the chief executive of the NRA, said the authority has recently met with EirGrid to discuss the issues involved, even though the NRA had not, to date, any direct request from EirGrid to facilitate the under-grounding of the power lines along the M3 route.
“Should EirGrid decide to formally propose laying their cables along the M3, they would endeavour to facilitate their requirements, subject — as you suggest — to suitable indemnities regarding damage, disruption, costs, etc,” Fred Barry wrote to Noel Dempsey.
He pointed out that the M3 is the subject of a 35-year concession contract and any agreement with EirGrid will also require agreement with the public-private partnership company, which is unlikely to be a straightforward matter.
“The costs and various indemnities that would be required are likely to be significant and may pose difficulties for EirGrid in the event that they wished to advance this proposal,” he added.
He suggested that, while not ruling out the possibility of accommodating the cable along the route of the M3 motorway, if placement of these cables along the public road network is required, it might be preferable to use the existing N3 route.
“The next step, from an NRA perspective, is for EirGrid to decide whether or not they wish to pursue either of those (M3 or N3) options,” he concluded.
Noel Dempsey has asked his 26-County Minister for Communications and Natural Resources, Éamonn Ryan, to fund an independent assessment of the cost of under-grounding the power lines, and Minister Ryan agreed to consider this option, according to a spokesperson for Noel Dempsey.
Meanwhile, in another significant development, the North-East Pylon ressure (NEPP) campaign has been successful in the first stage of a High Court action against EirGrid`s proposals.
A member of NEPP, Thomas Madden from Kilmessan, had requested EirGrid
to give him a copy of the report and information used by them to select their chosen options for the over-ground power lines, but EirGrid had refused to give him the information.
In the High Court in Dublin in early February, Mr Justice Peart made an order quashing EirGrid`s refusal to supply the report and other information on the three proposed routes to the applicant. The judge granted a declaration that EirGrid had erred in law in refusing to supply the information by claiming that it was not a ‘public authority’ within the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment)
Regulations 2007.
The judge granted several further orders. He ordered EirGrid to forthwith make available to Thomas Madden the report or reports that were commissioned and/or considered by them in coming to the selection of three route options for the proposed 400kv Meath to Cavan power line, together with all of the documentation or other material used in compiling or in supporting the findings or recommendations set out in such report or reports.
Meanwhile, campaigners against the locating of overhead high-tension electricity cables in Meath said this week that an experiment carried out with fluorescent tubes at Batterstown justified their fears over health and safety issues.
The tubes, which were unconnected to wiring, lit up in the hands of Cllr Brian Fitzgerald when he stood under 400kv cables at Batterstown. A similar experiment was carried out by a group of 40 campaigners, with the same result.
The EirGrid company said that it had seen photographs of the experiment but said it wanted to assure people that the “well-known and normal phenomenon” of a fluorescent tube “glowing” if held directly beneath a high voltage power line did not imply adverse health implications.
Francis Lally of the North East Pylon Pressure group (NEPP) said that the lighting up of fluorescent tubes in the hands of people at Batterstown, unaided by wiring or starters, “puts a whole different perspective on this debate”.
“The EirGrid people have said that there are no health ill-effects from these cables but surely if a fluorescent tube lights up in the hands of a person standing underneath these cables, something must be wrong. It puts a whole new complexion on the thing. It certainly strengthens our case for undergrounding,” he said.
Francis Lally added that anyone who had heard Professor Henshaw speaking
on the RTÉ Primetime programme last week, would have serious concerns about the possibility of ill-effects on health from high-powered cabling such as that proposed for the county.
“There is another whole new area that hasn’t been touched on yet and that is called the ‘corona effect’. It may be that a person who has been living or working under these cables may not have ill-effects but that their DNA will be affected and damage may be passed on in the genes to the children of the future. That is another good reason for putting the cables underground.”
ENDS
