TheCity

Tag: Strike action

  • Former Debenhams staff urge shoppers to #BoycottDebenhams this Christmas

    Former Debenhams staff urge shoppers to #BoycottDebenhams this Christmas

    Former Debenhams staff are urging people to #BoycottDebenhams when shopping online this Christmas. Róise Collins took to Twitter to see why it’s trending.

    Taken by Eric Jones and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence

    Former Debenhams staff have launched a campaign urging shoppers to boycott the department store this Christmas. The workers have been on the picket line since the start of lockdown when Debenhams announced that their 11 stores would be going into liquidation – resulting in over 2,000 people losing their jobs. The workers have been disputing their redundancy terms with the liquidator, KPMG.

    This week marked #222days of the workers picket line, and makes it one of the longest running pickets in the state.

    Mick Barry TD raised this issue at the Dáil and pushed the Taoiseach for a solution. He explained why the workers are still picketing despite the cold weather or the fact that their in the midst of a lockdown – “liquidator’s KPMG refuse to give any guarantee that they will not attempt to move stock in level 5, the picket continues despite a High Court injunction and a threat of court summons’ and even jailings.

    “These workers, overwhelmingly women, want to know, if you intend to intervene to resolve this dispute in time for them and their long suffering families to have a decent Christmas?” he said.

    Many other TD’s have voiced their support and solidarity with the workers. Such as Bríd Smith, Seán Crowe and Thomas Pringle.

    Another popular tweet by @KarenCullinane1 said: “When shopping for presents this Christmas, please be mindful to boycott Denhams Online in solidarity with the Debenhams workers who have been on strike now for 222 days.” 

    https://twitter.com/KarenCullinane1/status/1328692953167126529?s=20

    A Twitter account in support of the workers tweeted emphasising why it’s important not to be lured in by the company’s #BlackFriday sales.

  • OPINION: Does the ESB really have the right to strike?

    OPINION: Does the ESB really have the right to strike?

    The threatened ESB strike that was scheduled to happen on December 16th has been called off.

    A deal was struck between ESB management and unions  on Sunday resulting in the withdrawal of threatened strike action. The strike was called due to a €1.6 billion hole in the company pension fund.

    B&W Powerline Sunset

    While this is great news for everyone involved it does raise the question, did they have the right to strike in the first place?

    On the surface the answer is yes, of course they have the right to strike as any worker does. It is a basic right of the workers in this country. However, if you look at the bigger picture, the ramifications of such action would be devastating for the public.

    A survey conducted by the Journal.ie showed that the proposed strike didn’t sit well with the Irish public with 37% of people saying that they didn’t support the ESB workers. A further 22% said they would support them if the strike didn’t lead to power outages.

    That is the major problem with their strike threat. If they went on strike it would surely lead to nationwide power outages, if that wasn’t to  happen then the strike threat wouldn’t be taken seriously.

    If the strike had gone ahead, all power generated by the ESB would have been off grid when the action kicked in. This would have led to power outages in homes and businesses across the country.

    While some people may say that the workers have a right to strike,  it can equally be argued that the public have a right to basic living standards such as electricity and heating, especially during winter.

    A lot has been written about how the people should stand behind the ESB workers and show support for “the little guy” against the big companies that pay them, but what about the public? If the power went out how many would be without  heating? With temperatures set to fall again it would be very hard to support the workers if the people had no heating, no means of cooking food, no means of storing food or even hot water.

    There are many people around the country, particularly in rural areas, that have dialysis machines at home or other electronic medical devices that would no longer work were the power to go out. What about these people?

    The question isn’t ‘do the workers have a right to strike?’, it is ‘does the public deserve to be denied that which we pay for?’ In Ireland we pay 6% above the EU average for electricity, not a huge difference but enough. The average salary of an ESB worker is €85,000 per year.

    Charles W Glynn
    Charles W Glynn

    How many of us can say we earn that much, and we are supposed to support them?

    This entire debate was, to me, ridiculous. How can I be expected to support a strike when they would be depriving me of heating, electricity, means for cooking and heating water? Their annual salary is almost four times my own and they’re “the little guy”?

    Don’t make me laugh.