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THE HIGH COURT has ordered a TD and two councillors to stop blockading Greyhound bin trucks in Dublin.
The order was made against TD Joan Collins and councillors Tina MacVeigh and Patrick Dunne, all members of People Before Profit.
The waste management company had gone to court to try to prevent people from stopping the trucks from picking up rubbish, during a dispute which has lasted almost two months.
Greyhound said it regretted having to go to court, but said it was necessary after a number of incidents where trucks had been “illegally blocked by both striking workers and protesters”.
The company also said that agency and contract workers had been abused, intimidated and threatened.
A union representing the Greyhound workers said it will continue to hold peaceful pickets at the company’s depots in Dublin 22 and Dublin 12.
One worker said he and his colleagues want to return to work but that the company needs to end the dispute.
“My colleagues and I do not earn large amounts of money to carry out the essential task of collecting domestic refuse in Dublin,” said Jesse Hughes, who is a shop steward for SIPTU.
“Greyhound operatives earn between €9.50 and €11.45 per hour. Drivers earn €15.66 an hour. It is these wages that the company is seeking to cut by up to 35%”.
SIPTU says the workers have been locked out of the company since 17 June for refusing to accept the company’s plan to cut their wages by around 30% and change their employment conditions.
However Greyhound, which has been employing new staff to carry out waste collections during the strike, says the workers will still be paid more than the industry average.
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You can’t blame them for striking. That is a massive decrease in pay.
So far-left nutters support mass immigration but object to foreigner scabs, which mass immigration is simply a larger version of, the far-left are extreme idiots.
As are the far right. You seem to be flying solo here. BNP-lite.
I will be cancelling my Greyhound contract next week or maybe Greyhound would like to get an injunction to stop me doing that as well. Well done, Greyhound soon you will have no customers so you won’t need to get injunctions and you you can send your strike breaking employees home. Ultimately you will suffer as a result of your corporate greed.
Fair play Brian
Hopefully more people will cancel contracts greyhound.
They ignore their employees and treat them with total disregard.
When customers fight back too,they will finally listen
Absolutely right Brian
Im signing up to greyhound.. its a business, there in it for profit no keeping old farts on cushy numbers
Well you be signing up to a crap service and terrible customer service too.
Enjoy your arguments on the phone.
Labour court ruled and union can’t accept. Unless the irish mentality changes and think commercial we will continue to have ECG etc telling us what to do. Politicians getting involved demonstrates the low standard of politician that gets elected whose only campaign is screw the 5 per cent of folks that pay 40per cent of the income tax.. If I lived in dub I would encourage greyhound and support them
Disgraceful blocking of perfectly legitimate protest action by a High Court which we all know is deeply compromised. Despite their efforts this fight will continue
It is not blocking a legitimate protest, it is telling people to stop breaking the law, as the courts should do. Anyone is entitled to legitimate protest but not to block traffic, assault, intimidate and spit at people going about their business. They should be locked up
No Paul they shouldn’t, they have a legitimate grievance about a huge drop in pay, and how else will they listened to? Sometimes we the public have to sacrifice our oWN convenience so that our fellow men don’t get ignored and f***ed over
‘Legitimate protest action’.. In no way is this protest legitimate, it’s illegal.. Don’t get me wrong, I think what Greyhound are doing is a disgrace, but the High Court was right in this instance
Sorry Stephen but I can’t agree with smashing truck windscreens with hammers while men are driving, cutting safety wires with knives while wearing balaclavas and spitting at workers going about their business, I don’t care what the dispute is, that is thuggery and thankfully is against the law in this democracy.
I can’t believe how everyone falls back on legal quibbles when there is an issue at stake which is above and beyond all of that. Serious lack of solidarity on here. And I must say I condone any and every action short of real physical attack in this case, if that’s what it takes
All entitled to our opinions Stephen, we will have to agree to differ on this one. At least I can say we are both taking enough interest in it to argue the point which is a good thing.
Yes indeed Paul, sorry didn’t mean to harangue you in particular
What did you expect, the greyhound issue is a small scale version of what the globalists want – constant cheap labour through mass immigration.
So you agree with physical violence to resolve this Stephen?
You are no better than the people who do these things, if that’s the case.
I obviously don’t want anyone to be hurt Marcus, but anything short of that yes I absolutely agree with
So intimidation, abusing people verbally who may not be able to take that kind of thing, but only want to feed their family.
Is that ok?
The reason I ask is that I work in a bar and if anyone verbally abuses me they are out the door. Physical abuse and they are likley to get more than they bargained for.
Why should that not apply here?
Any sane person cannot condone what has led to the High Court today.
Yes I empathise with the workers. But is this the way to gain credibility?
Marcus I don’t think you’re making enough allowance for how emotive this issue is. The greyhound staff stand to lose a huge percentage of what is already a fairly negligible wage. I can understand if tempers run high during this dispute and so I can condone behaviour which, in the context of your pub for instance, I normally wouldn’t.
Fully support workers rights to strike boycott Greyhound and their scab labour.
Everyone supports their right to strike, that is not what the injunction is about. People should not support anyone conducting illegal acts of intimidation and blocking people going about their work. Good decision by the court.
Comments above by Jesse Hughes are a lie, read up on the real facts and rates. New rates on offer are €9.90 per hour for operatives and €13.06 for drivers, read up on all the media reports and many comments on this website.
If those correct rates are after a 35% cut then they were previously being paid €15.23 per hour for operatives and €20.09 for drivers. Simple maths. Someone is telling porky pies here, get the facts straight.
Again Paul another good factual comment.
I like you, have taken an interest in this and am tired of the lies and propaganda from union types.
Some people think its ok to terrorise people and intimidate them to get their way. I don’t. ..jail them all or let them go live in 1930′s chicago with all the other gangsters.
If you don’t have the intelligence or humanity to protest and fight fir your jobs like decent human beings then you dont deserve them.
I genuinely feel empathy for the strikers families but they have lost their way in the emotion of it all and joined up with these clowns from various political alliances. That was always going to be a losing battle because no one takes them seriously.
They rant and rave without any real answers.
Name the agency who supplies workers when legit workers are “locked out”
Any employment agency would have people ready to work. Depending on the size of the job it could be a number of agency’s supplying workers.
Agencies
Askmearse!!
Ask Collins dictionary
Maybe you talk to dictionary’s but rational people don’t.
Touche ,Glen! Touche!
Brian, I totally agree with your comment. I have already stopped using greyhound. Hopefully more and more people will do the same and show the company that bulky tactics only work on their staff. The customer who pays their wages has a voice too, and we, well I, ain’t happy with how they treating their staff. We should be all getting behind the staff. Or companies will have a free for all. Don’t forget, the management are not getting these drastic cuts, even though they say they are in financial difficulty. Play fair greyhound
So move to other waste companies who pay their staff lower rates and do not recognise unions at all?? Great win for the workers there John Doe.
Paul, those staff in the other companies started on those wages, otherwise we would hear about them too. We are talking about a company who are picking on the ground staff, with huge cuts, while keeping their own salaries nicely furnished. Rather than trying to be smart, why don’t you share your suggestions. Anyone can troll, how about some constructive words from you.
How do you know all this.. post some facts please
I am not trying to be smart or troll, if you look back on articles on this site and others I have posted a lot on what I think about this dispute and gone to the bother of taking the time to research the facts. Looking at all of the facts and figures quoted everywhere they do not add up. The unions are quting various old and new rates and saying that the cuts are 35%
The figures do not add up at all. Take the driver rate quoted above by Jesse Hughes. He is saying the driver earns €15.66 per hour, fact and direct quote. He is saying that they have to take a 35% cut. If they have to take a 35% cut to €15.66 per hour then the new rate would be €10.18 per hour. That is not the rate being offered and confirmed as being on offer in the Labour Court and by the management and in many media reports that i or anyone can google. I have taken the interest in this to do just that. The rate being offered is €13.06 per hour. That means that their current rate is being cut by €2.60 per hour or 16.6%. That is what is annoying me about the union spin here, there is no 35% pay cut. These are the facts.
The fact is that there is now competition in the waste business wheras there wasn’t when this company got the original contract and these workers started on those rates. The company cannot compete when all of their competitors are paying significantly less to their workers than they are. They have been through all of the negotiations with SIPTU and through the Labour Court and all parties agree that the company is losing money and needs to make these savings to survive. I am thinking of the other 200 workers in the company who will be out of a job if this dispute goes on.
It is like the fact that Aer Lingus had to change its cost base when Ryanair came in to the market with lower cost competition. If the workers there had not taken the necessary cuts then the company would have gone bust. The cuts were made and the company survived for the good of all of the employees and competition in general for the market and travelling public. If Greyhound management did not do what they have done then the company would go bust and everyone would call them irresponsible so they cannot win either way.
I have made plenty of constructive comments in other posts and have a genuine interest in the workers on strike and the rest of the staff. My suggestion is that the workers go back to work and accept the rates on offer as they will still be paid more than their counterparts in other waste companies and they will still have jobs. It would be great if all of the waste companies came up to the old rates being paid and there was a level playing field but then bin charges would have to rise and there would be a bigger outcry from the public as they might want everyone to get paid better but would not be willing to pay for it. Unfortunately the workers here will be the losers and will end up on the dole and unemployable, that is the real world of capitalism, I don’t like it but that is the truth.
On a seperate comment neither you or I know if other staff and management salaries have been cut, I presume they have but it is not in the media, I don’t know and neither do you so I will not make that assumption. Is that constructive enough? :-)
A lot of what you say is very true, but you must bare in mind that greyhound were one of the major companies that took over the routes from Dublin City Council one would assume that the rates of pay would follow the team with the transfer of employment legislation. At some point the business must have realised that the market would open up to competitors, crying after the fact about loosing money is not simple capitalism, this was part of their long term strategy for cost cutting whether they like it or not. This is a business that made a bad decision and have now forced the wage cuts upon their employees in a manner that is disgraceful. I have already cancelled my bins with this provider because their customer service was appalling. Maybe their domestic business grew to quickly I don’t know but if a customer can be treated with distain imagine the culture that their workers are employed under. With 12k+ a day court fees and lost business they should have tried to mediate and not effectively constructively dismiss their current work force, put yourself in the employees position for a change.
Couldn’t have said it better mydelf Paul. Very constructive and balanced post.
Yet still all the loonies are out to play…
Oh and nobody even dares mention the fact that there has been attacks on bin trucks with knives and hammers. Coincidence? I think not.
Yes John Doe…facts please. I want proof of your accusations.
You haven’t produced any yet.
The point here Stephen is that the company did mediate for over a year through the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court. SIPTU, independent accountants and the Labour Court all agreed that the company was losing money and had to make the savings or go bust. The way the union portray this dispute is that the men just turned up one day and were “locked out”. That is totally untrue, all of the workers were written to in advance of the day their new conditions were to take effect, it was explained to them exactly what was going to happen and they then went on to orchestrate this dispute as if they were the poor put upon innocents. That, along with all of the deliberately inaccurate figures quoted by the union, is what makes me see through the charade that SIPTU are orchestrating here, to the detriment of the workers.
I have put myself in the position of the employees and my attitude would be that if they do not want to do their job for the rates of pay on offer then they should go and work elsewhere and seek employment on the better rates they feel they deserve. That is what I would do if my employer wanted to slash my wages or basically did not want me to work for him, move on and get back to work.
Well said Paul, I’m always dubious off percentages being quoted. It generally means that there is a spin some where.
Paul, I understand there was mediation, and labour court recommendations. But mediation is only helpful if both parties give some Lee way. This was not the case. Greyhound wanted 35 percent and that is what they got. The figures are a grey area, and I ain’t sure either what they actually are, but greyhound took over that contract, and they understood the pay scale. They must have known there would be competition. They did not cement their standing, and now while they lose customers, they decide to blame the collection crew for high wages. They didn’t complain when they bought the rights to start refuse collections. Only complaining now because they messed up. And thank you for your comment, it was constructive, and informative. And Marcus, the facts, most of them, are out there to be seen. The recommendations did not mention anywhere about any other pay cuts in the company. The absence of this info makes no sense. If you are a struggling company, and need to make savings, and have to go thru mediation and labour courts, you would bring everything to the table, not just one area of staff first. I searched for the facts Marcus, and read the papers and watched the news. I do not know everything about this, only the staff and management do, I am just trying to make an informed decision, that is what this is all about. If we all agreed with each other, this would be a very boring thread.
they are getting more than what newly qualified nurses like my wife get,and I don’t think the operators had to do 4 very tough years training either.
Paul most graduates start on low wages, but these increase once they become an asset to the company
I have to admit I formed an opinion on this situation siding with the company based on what I was reading and not looking at the broader picture. I take back what I said and fully support all strikers in taking a stand.
I am the total opposite Gary! I started being in full support of the workers but the more I have read up on it and seen developments the more I am on the side of the company. To me, what the workers and unions are claiming just does not add up
Paul
What concerns me at the moment are the number of times our elected Members of Dail Eireann believe that they are above the Law and can act in a manner more in keeping with a criminal element within society.
When Daly and Wallace consider it acceptable to trespass on the Tarmac of an International Airport and these current nutters regard the criminal interference with legitimate business being carried out then we need new laws to require TDs to behave in a legal manner or lose their seats!
Shocking decision. Scabs out
Why is it a shocking decision to order people to stop breaking the law? Is that not what the courts are for?
@Paul
Sure Paul the law is always moral.
I didn’t say it was Ciara, but thankfully it is there to protect law abiding people from people who break the law. To me, that is a good thing.
Think before cancelling your contact
I am no way an advocate for Greyhound but If people end their contracts with Greyhound, there will be no work for workers to go back too. All other waste operators are not unionised.
Join the picket line
Complain to company, email, phone, letters ad demand your union support the workers
They may not be unionised but you don’t hear complaints from the workers. Once enough people start cancelling their accounts Greyhound will cave in or go bust.
And if greyhound go busy what rate of pay will the workers receive?
*Go Bust
Greyhound aren’t going to let it fail. They would have the control so why would they.
If Sinn Féin keep supporting mass immigration there will be no work for the Irish. Thanks for selling out.
Meanwhile one of your reps said immigrants are more Irish than the native Irish, you really are an anti-Irish lot – 6 counties free so we can give away the 26 we already have. Shame on you, the men and women of 1916 would have nothing to do with Sinn Fein.
So Glen is saying that the workers who are not in a union don’t complain and get on with their work but then the ones who are in the union stop working and do compain. Food for thought in that……
Aengus,
None of the FDI or MNC that employ hundreds of thousands people in Ireland who have an above average wage and have the best working conditions in the country have unions. Your point is very weak, and demonstrates that you are out of touch with reality.
Wise up Glen: if a business is not viable any businessman or investor would let it fail then another one will pick up the assets and create a new business with new employees and contracts or the competitors fill the gap. Greyhound is a private business not a CIE or other public funded or partly public owned company…
Brian McGee you couldn’t be more wrong
Frank Janes, please expand how I’m wrong. I work in this sector and know that its true
Brian, I don’t need to ‘expand how you’re wrong’, but I can tell you that Unions represent workers in many of the major pharmaceutical and medical device mnc’s in Ireland. Therefor, on that basis, and indeed if you accept that many of these jobs are well paid, you above comment is wrong. I hope that this suffices as a response, I believe that being organised in a union leads to better work.
What? Who’s blocking greyhound tracks?
Juat saw a few of them leaving the four courts on the 9 news. By the looks of & sound of them, they’re the typical lower class Dub that seem to be infesting everywhere at the moment
I just stuff me rubish in the corpo bins on da street, not payin for me rubish
So you leave that paying lark to the rest of us? Thanks for that.
Good, it’s about time People Against Profit types were made to obey the law
I don’t know the ins and out of this strike, I’ll be honest.
I support peoples right to strike though.
However, have to say since this strike started my bins have been put back on the footpath against the garden wall in front of my house every single week by the ‘new’ staff. Previously the bins were left out halfway across the road, causing an obstruction, flung on it’s side in the middle of the footpath or in the middle of the driveway etc!
Put her in jail as labour court have ruled and union ned to accept.. She has 3 or 4 months holidays to think about it..
That’s it? Keyboard warriors bashing Unions once again. If you ever stood on a picket to fight for your rights you would not be so quick to shoot down the Unions. SCABS the lot of you.
I usually find that unions extort money weekly from the workforce and are o ly there to protect the worthless induvidal feckers whose cause trouble, dont work, mess obout on the the job.
In cases like this, or irish rail, the terms are fair but unions need to be unrealistic or they lose the weekly sub. We have a union where i work but i would have no part in it. Their corruption and malipunation of the work force is shocking..
Since 2007, how much has membership of a union decreased?
Who caused the refuse collection war?
Red thumbs not an answer to the question!!!
Tony Soprano
Companies like Panda and Greyhound, which were able to undercut the county council and provide the service for cheaper. Essential service needed by all in a monopolised market that suddenly a bunch of companies jumped on maybe?
That this was able to happen tells you that the public service was probably paying inflated wages or had bloated admin like every other public service in this country,
Since there’s no real way to cut costs in waste disposal other than with staff wages, the industry was just begging to be undercut.
Now if only an entire organisation of healthcare providers could do the same on the HSE…
I pretty confident that my employer is happy with my standard of work so im not worried. However i would be very happy to see anyone come in and take the jobs of the few union protected wasters here who make everyone elses job harder and ruin what is a good working atmoshere. The terms they are being offered are more than fair.
The sense of entitlement people have is shocking.
Shame on anyone who is in a position to change providers and hasn’t done so.
Why Tom? As a poster above says. The new staff are providing a much better service, thats all you can ask for as a customer
No its not.As a customer you can demand ethical standards from your service providers. Otherwise dont do business with them.Youd be ok with some jobbridge”intern” taking your job I suppose?
Tom if we are talking ethics here then explain to me whats ethical about knife and hammer attacks, spitting and deliberately organising a campaign to close the business?
From what I have read there are another 200-300 people employed there. Surely they have to be considered as well?
According to the labour courts the cuts had to be made for the survival of the business. I empathise with the strikers but the facts do not weigh in their favour.
I find it hard to understand your reasoning. Is it just cut your nose off to spite everyones face?
Put your rubbish in the lawn at the Aras now that will solve the problem
have your say