EPSU supports SIPTU members in their strike

(6 August 2014) EPSU is extremely concerned to learn about SIPTU’s dispute with Greyhound Recycling and Recovery waste company owned by the brothers Michael and Brian Buckley, and which has led to workers being locked out since 17th June.
It is not acceptable that the company’s management attempt to force workers to accept wage cuts of up to 35% and that they employ strikebreakers to carry out waste collections during the dispute.

We extend our solidarity to all of the 78 SIPTU members engaged in the dispute, and also our sympathy to James Burke who had to be hospitalised after being hit by a van as it exited the company’s depot in Knockmitten, west Dublin, on Tuesday, 22nd July.

EPSU supports SIPTU members in your strike. The right to association and collective bargaining are internationally recognized rights. These rights guarantee that workers can join trade unions to defend and promote our interests and protect us against the one-sided rules and exploitation from our employers. By unilaterally imposing a 35% cut in wages Greyhound does not seem to be interested in negotiating a balanced and reasonable solution to the conflict.

EPSU’s members from across Europe join your calls for the management of Greyhound to end this lockout immediately and to allow the workers to return to their jobs on their existing terms of employment. This will facilitate a resumption of social dialogue and negotiations between management and workers and help put an end to the costly and destructive dispute.

EPSU points out too that increasingly in all countries there is growing awareness about the need for Europe to become a ‘recycling society’ and to adopt and implement ambitious policies to reduce and use waste as a resource. This can only be successful however if the waste sector is properly regulated and if waste workers have decent pay and working conditions. Decent pay is not a luxury but a necessity in meeting this challenge. Dublin City Council and other local authorities have a key role and they must take responsibility for the quality of waste services however they are provided, including when through public contracts. The new EU public procurement Directives put more emphasis on quality and less on ‘lowest price’ and this should be used to full effect.

We ask you to send similar messages of support to SIPTU, if possible including a photo of you holding the Greyhound Lock Out poster (attached below).

Messages and photos should be sent to Dan O’Neill, SIPTU Social Media/Campaigner [email protected]