IndyMedia
Union recognition dispute or anti-foreigner dispute?
Seems a few local buildings think they have a right to employment at local sites. Imagine if that was taken to its logical conclusion?
RTE
Typical rubbish union protest.
:rolleyes:
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I used to be very supportive of Trade Unions, but time and experience has lead me to view a lot of them as ineefectual, aggressively political, and outrageously selfish.
As an example - whilst President of my Students' Union in England, we came up with the fairly obvious conclusion that there were 3 key stakeholders on campus : the students, the staff/academics, and 'the administration' (i.e. the higher echelons of the University who made all the decisions regardless of views elsewere).
We therefore set-up a collaborative body between the Students' Union and the 'Joint-campus Trade Unions' body (i.e. the group that brought together the various Unions for manual labour, different academic groups, white collar staff etc). The idea was that there were certain areas of common ground that we could all agree on, and that if the 2 main stakeholders on campus combined on these then the Administration would be less able to ignore our views.
All went well. The Unions nationally called a strike on pay levels, and we were one of the few SU's in our region that actively supported the strike - successfully encouraging the students to support it on the grounds that poor pay was impacting the quality of education they were receiving. The 2 key stakeholders on campus working together on common aims. All very positive stuff.
About a month later, however, we then sought the Trade Unions help in the National Union of Students campaign against Tuition Fees. Now - you would expect that the imposition of fees for third level education would be something Trade Union activists would instinctively be opposed to - if not down-right angry about. And you may well be right. But did they in any way, shape or form help us to galvanise support on the issue ? Did they feck. Did they agree to lobby the administration or their own members on the issue ? Did they feck ? Why ? I can only guess because it wasn't in the immediate or supremely narrow self-interest of themselves or their members.
I can still see to this day some of the little *****s clear as day in my mind at that meeting where we asked them to reciprocate our earlier support for their cause with support for ours. The room replicated a bag of eells, such was the squirming, shuffling and silent gazing at the floor that went on.
Ever since then I lost all respect for Trade Unions, and realised that the vast majority of them don't give a flying feck about ANYTHING other than their own incredibly narrow self-interest.
So the weasels can all feckin' rot in hell for all I care. Victory to the Cullen Brothers... :D
3 unemployed bricklayers in the middle of the biggest construction boom this country has ever seen! Yeah right!
Probably shouldn't post on this subject as it's too close to the bone and I'm likely to get a bit irrational on it but seriously lads anyone who works in the construction industry knows what BATU (the brickies union) are like.
They are the biggest bunch of bullying, intimidating thugs around. They have been at this stuff for years. No respect or support from their other trade unionists, other construction workers or the public and suprisingly the media beacause at this stage they have no credibility left. None not an ounce.
This "dispute" was all about getting Collen to sack certain workers.
I wouldn't really.Quote:
Originally Posted by dcfcsteve
Maybe in an ideal world but i wouldn't have been as hopeful as you.:)
Pete
Well it wasn't an attempt to prevent building on Belfield Park that's for sure! :D
I know, sure i saw 3 people were arrested & knew couldn't be that many UCD fans.Quote:
Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie
They were presumably allowed to hold their protest in Belfield to keep the disruption away from the local houses but they very quickly made themselves unwelcome. They would comment on the attractiveness or otherwise of every girl walking into college and then they started fights with the guards and the other workers.
I have no problem with them if they want to hold a protest but there was no need for the added extras.
And yet they wondering why they were refused employment...Quote:
Originally Posted by Student Mullet
Whilst I'd be naturally suspicious of anything Boyd-Barrett has a hand in, it does seem they have a case. It's not about them not being employed because they are locals, it's about them not being employed because they're union members who would insist on getting agreed rates of pay.
Yet again highlights the need for a labour inspectorate that has seize and search powers like CAB. A fully complying employer would have nothing to fear as they'd get no complaints made against them anyway...
Nothing to do with trade union labour. A lot of the workers on the site are members of a trade union. Everything to do with the Brickies union trying to dictate to employers who works on paticular sites.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
They were attempting to get other brickies on the site that they have a problem with sacked by Collen.
Bricklayers in Dublin are on huge money! No need for a labour inspectorate for these guys unless it's going to monitor BATU.
Did you not notice how they got absolutely no support from the other trade unions, workers, etc,
Everyone knows the bullying and intimidation that this union practise!
Normally I'd agree with you but that's not an issue here because UCD have their own full time building inspectors. Their job is to check out the quality of the building work, not the labour practices, but their experienced engineers and they'd spot anything funny fairly quickly. UCD was picketed simply because the same company is building here as is building at the site of the dispute. From what I can tell the picket is gone though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
There's more of us than that travel to Turner's Cross for away games boy.Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
It's just they don't all wear club colours in case they get attacked by savages outside the pale!:D
What, they inspect wage packets as well as brick laying?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bald Student
That's a fair point Macy, there's a big difference between a building inspector and a labour inspector but I've yet to see any evidance or even any credible suggestion that there's anything funny going on at the site.Quote:
Originally Posted by Macy
I pretty sure The Pheonix had something on the company - but the last two copies have been recycled at this stage, so I'll leave it at that.
Saw some sort of protest there today about C45 forms but the placards were not clearly readable... Guys looked like builders.
I guess has something to do with this?
Any clues?
Done a bit of digging & looks like this is a long running dispute about sub-contractors employed at building sites & that this prevents local people being employed.
I believe the Revenue Commissioners have done huge crackdown on the building trade & tax evasion so seems like non-issue. Seems more likely that local people seem to think they have a right to be employed on local sites which is ludicrous.
I may be incorrect but i think the builder in question has already won an injunction to prevent the unions picketing & blocking their sites so I guess that is why they picketing Dublin castle now?
I thought C45 was another new club for the first division...
No demand for extra club in Cork... :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
AFAIK, a C45 is the certificate from the tax office for self-employed.
BATU (representing bricklayers and some carpenters) have been campaigning for years for direct employment.
The big building companies want to take on every brickie as an individual sub-contractor. This provides many advantages to the company, and many disadvantages to the tradesmen.
Some of the advantages to the company are:
simpler payroll administrationSome of the disadvantages for the workers are:
divided workforce
complex administration (tax, PRSI, insurance...)The strategy of the CIF in encouraging this mode of employment seems to be, in the short term, to try to keep labour costs down by passing some of the administrative burden to the workers and forcing workers to compete against each other, but in the long term, to try to undermine the Registered Employment Agreement for the Construction Industry and neutralise the growing power of the trade unions in the construction industry.
competition among workers
While skilled bricklayers can command a very good wage at the moment, this is still just a tiny drop in the ocean of profits the big construction companies in this country have been making for the last 10 years. And they know (particularly the older workers) that the building boom will not go on forever, and that when it ends they will be back to where they were before.