Dunnes workers planning major protest march in Dublin

Staff at Dunnes Stores who are members of the Mandate trade union are to hold a major protest march in Dublin, probably in early June.

At a meeting on Sunday, shop stewards representing Mandate members in the retailer decided not to engage in further industrial action for the moment.

About 5,000 staff in Dunnes Stores who are members of Mandate have been involved in a campaign in relation to working hours and earnings, job security, pay, and the right to trade union representation.

The union’s members in more than 100 Dunnes Stores outlets staged a one-day stoppage on Holy Thursday earlier this month.

Mandate argued that management at the retailer had engaged in retribution against a number of its members who had taken part in the strike before Easter.

Right reserved

Mandate assistant general secretary Gerry Light said while the 100 shop stewards who met on Sunday had opted for the moment not to stage further strikes, they were strongly reserving the right to undertake industrial action in the future if there was no progress in the dispute.

He said any further industrial action may not necessarily be identical to the one-day stoppage before Easter, but could be escalated.

The planned protest march in Dublin is likely to involve the broader trade union movement, which has strongly backed the Mandate campaign against management at Dunnes Stores.

Mr Light said that in addition to the national protest in Dublin, a number of local initiatives would also take place.

June date likely

The day of the protest march has not yet been decided, but it is expected to be in June.

Shop stewards in Dunnes, in deciding to hold off on industrial action for the moment, may also be waiting to see whether planned legislation on the issue is enacted before the Dáil’s summer recess.

The Government’s planned legislation would give workers greater collective bargaining rights and could address some of the concerns raised by the workers.

No public comment

Dunnes Stores has not commented publicly on the dispute with Mandate.

However, in a letter sent to staff in February it warned of possible layoffs and redundancies if “harm” was inflicted on the company as a result of industrial action.

The company maintained at the time that Mandate was engineering a row on issues that did not exist to pursue an agenda of securing union representation rights.

Dunnes said it did not engage directly with trade unions and maintained that its staff had received two pay increases in recent years.