Irish Ferries
When I travelled from Cherbourg to Rosslare with Irish Ferries I noted how pleasant an experience it was, and how this was in large measure due to the friendly and helpful staff. Of course all that has changed now as the management at Irish Ferries seek to replace that staff with cheaper foreign labour.
I have no sympathy for the management at Irish Ferries for the current mess they find themselves in. It is not a simple case of market forces determining who will work for the lowest wage. It’s a case of a company making a conscious decision to employ workers who are more vulnerable to exploitation. In much the same way, they exploit the labour laws by flying a flag of convenience (the Bahamas) while trading on the goodwill of the ‘Irish’ name.
If you want to live by the laws of the Bahamas then take your ships there.
Mark Waters marked time at 3:58 pm on November 28th, 2005 .
I’m sure you dont mean it to sound like it does but your opening para says friendly and helpful staff - all that has changed now - cheaper foreign labour. because Ferries want to pay beauticians €1 an hour or construction companies want to pay below the minimum wage does not mean they will be less friendly or helpful, quite the opposite. I stood in line and on picket with the GAMA workers, the SIPTU lads kept a greater distance than me and I dont even work in the trade. Those Turkish guys were great, friendly and helpful, funny & charmimg and despite their situation the most brave of strikers I have picketed with, the picket lasted 6 weeks. If there is work to be had, let them work here, but lets says NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING as in this case.
A 24hr General Strike is what is needed.
Thanks Brian. You’re right, I didn’t mean it to sound like that but there is some truth to the saying that ‘a happy worker is a good worker’. If you treat workers well they are more inclined to do a good job.
I have no problem with foreign workers replacing Irish staff as long as they get the same wages and conditions. Our aim should be to bring other countries up to our level rather than drag ourselves down to theirs.
Are we going to give the Germans back those jobs that went to Irish people in the 80s and 90s?
How about McAfee leaving it’s Dutch workers to relocate to Ireland? Do we refuse the company entry?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/20/mcafee_exits_netherlands/
For me the nationality of the worker should not be an issue. It is about workers rights. As I have said, if the foreign workers get the same wages and conditions as an Irish person for doing the same work then I have no problem with that.
I think the German and Dutch examples are different because they relate to tax policy rather than workers’ rights. If McAfee was relocating to take advantage of weak industrial relations law then I would have a problem with it.
I see worker’s rights as fundamantal things that should not be compromised for competitive advantage whereas tax policy is something that could be varied according to economic necessity.
What’s different about the rights of the workers in this case other than lower pay for the new employees? The new workers are still being paid more than the minimum wage (much more). They are being asked to work a 26 week year, same as current workers.
Yea, I think this is a difficult one - Ireland has been the beneficiary of similar companies re-locating here in the past and now it’s coming home to haunt us..I think the fact that it’s an “Irish” company is really confronting us here with the rest of the outright slavery we’re seeing exposed in the papers every other day. Irish Ferries are only doing at an institutional level that which some fruit famers et al are doing at an informal level. We’ve learned nothing in this country, nothing at all….I think there’s a much wider debate needed - focussing on the trades unions isn’t the half of it..