People take part in a Siptu protest at the Department of Social Protection offices in Dublin to mark the second day of strike action by care and community sector workers in a long-running dispute over a pay rise, July 6, 2022
SOME of Ireland’s largest trade unions joined forces today to demand major reforms of workers’ rights in the country.
Launching the Respect at Work campaign, Siptu, the Financial Services Union, Mandate Trade Union and the Communication Workers Union, said all the main political parties should support greater protections for employees at work.
The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) is also supporting the initiative.
The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
The visa system traps workers with abusive employers, creating a vulnerable workforce scared to complain for fear of deportation — that is why we’re campaigning for a ‘common sponsorship’ model instead, writes FAVOUR DAVIDKING
Labour’s watered-down legislation won’t protect us from unfair dismissal or ban some zero-hours contracts until 2027 — leaving millions of young people vulnerable to the populist right’s appeal, warns TUC young workers chair FRASER MCGUIRE
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR