Mayor supports striking workers

Dublin Lord Mayor Emer Costello and her husband Joe Costello TD visited striking workers at Dublin Port this morning to show …

Dublin Lord Mayor Emer Costello and her husband Joe Costello TD visited striking workers at Dublin Port this morning to show their support.

Some 42 dockers have been picketing the premises of Marine Terminal Limited (MTL) since July 3rd in a dispute over issues including reductions in pay and allowances.

MTL, a division of Peel Holdings, made 19 Siptu staff from its 70-strong workforce redundant earlier this year. Remaining employees were told that they would have to sign new contracts and take 14 per cent to 18 per cent pay cuts. Siptu claims staff were informed they would have to agree to the cuts or face losing their jobs.

Ms Costello today called for all sides dispute to engage in serious negotiations to end the seven week strike.

She said she had written to Dublin Port Company chief executive Enda Connellan and Peel Holdings chief executive of John Whittaker asking them "to use their good offices to help seek an end to the dispute because of the importance of Dublin Port to the life of the city and the health of the economy generally".

She said while Siptu is willing to negotiate, "there appears to be an element of foot dragging by management, who have shown a greater readiness to resort to the courts for injunctions than use the tried and tested industrial relations machinery of the State."

Siptu said recently that MTL management was offering a severance package of just two weeks pay per year of service, in addition to statutory entitlements. This compares with the last redundancy programme at the terminal which sawworkers get six week's pay, plus statutory entitlements.

Siptu believes the company will ultimately have to hire new workers with future contracts offered at greatly reduced conditions.

Prior to the strike action taking place the Labour Court issued an opinion in which it said that  the redundancies -  which were due to go through on May 29th - "do not constitute an exceptional collective redundancy." The Labour Court said  there was no evidence that those whose employment was to be terminated would be replaced by workers directly employed by the company.

In recent weeks there have been two marches in support of the workers by members of the local community.