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Des Derwin announces candidacy for SIPTU General Secretary national |
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news report
 Friday August 30, 2002 15:10 by Des Derwin Supporters Campaign dderwin at gofree dot indigo dot ie
 Derwin for a fighting democratic Union Dublin Shop Steward to Challenge Union Establishment. Derwin Calls for an End to Social Partnership and for Democratic Reform in SIPTU Des Derwin is today announcing his candidacy for the position of General Secretary of SIPTU. Balloting begins on Thursday 19th September. In declaring his intention to challenge the two “mainstream” candidates, Noel Dowling and Joe O’Flynn, Derwin says: “I’ve become increasingly concerned by the direction SIPTU is going in. In recent years it has almost become a third member of the coalition government and as we face into a period of economic uncertainty it is time we returned to a position of independence, a position of strength, from which we can properly represent our members’ interests. I am standing to give a voice to all those who are disillusioned with the current state of the union” “Social partnership has benefited the employers more than the workers. The Unions should not be in partnership with the rich and powerful. We should be able to lodge claims and back them up with industrial action if necessary. The union should put the interests of the members first. Social partnership has led to big profits for the employers and extra productivity from the workers.” Derwin wants to see democratic reform in SIPTU. He wants: · To restore the vote for the election of the National Executive Council, taken away last year, to the ordinary members.
“I think I am more in touch with the general membership. Every day I work next to them. I hear their concerns, indeed I share most of them, and therefore if elected I shall be best equipped to represent them.” And he is keen to put this pledge on the record: “If elected I will accept only the average industrial wage. I am well able to carry out the duties of General Secretary and I have demonstrated over the years that I can work with people of differing viewpoints within democratically decided policies and structures.”
Des Derwin Supporters Campaign Des Derwin ph: 8375760 or 087 6229686 dderwin@gofree.indigo.ie About Des Derwin: Who Is He ? If elected, Des Derwin has a wealth of experience from which to draw having been a member of SIPTU and the ITGWU since 1973. He works as an Assembly General Operative at a plastics factory in Finglas, Dublin, where he is a shop steward. He has a wide and varied industrial, negotiating and administrative experience gained from thirty years working in industry and over twenty-five serving on the Committee of the Electronics and Engineering Branch. He is familiar with the inner workings of SIPTU. Des is currently: · President of the Electronics and Engineering Branch. He has been an active delegate to successive National Conferences.
· An end to social partnership · Democratic control of SIPTU by its members · Support for any public sector members who wish to reject the Benchmarking Report in order to seek better deals. · A National Minimum Wage of €8 per hour. · Action to bridge the gap between the average earnings of women and men. · Statutory union recognition and a major recruitment drive. · SIPTU and the ICTU should be campaigning more actively for improved health and social services and against health cuts and double-taxation service charges. · An immediate increase in statutory redundancy payments to three and a half weeks per year of service. The current rate as shown in the recent I G B dispute is totally unacceptable. · A NO VOTE in the forthcoming Nice Referendum. Enlargement should go ahead, but EU deals which forbid subsidies and require deregulation and privatisation are bad for SIPTU. It is outrageous that ICTU called for a Yes Vote without consulting its members. |
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Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 2 1The so-called Trade Unions have done as much for the Workers in Ireland as they have done for the Belfast Dockers Dying from Asbestosis ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - but try and save their own skins.
Workers need to get off their knees and demand fair play fair wages and, not to be treated like worthless wage-slaves by their Unions - only useful to threaten the employers so they pay union leaders bigger salaries - because - its cheaper than paying their workers more money.
2002 and what we now know in retrospect were the times of FF, the Celtic Tiger, the benchmarking and the ensuant penal sentence of debts to be paid off for the next 80 years, debts to be paid by citizens grandchildren. Unemployment is in excess of 300,000, more have emigrated, and FAS (laden with cronyism and corruption) is being subsumed to Solas or for that matter maybe it is Intreo). The reality is that there are so many unemployed now that to create the training courses is only a temporary means of massaging the figures.
The question, I would like to raise - Is where do the Trade Unions stand now? What do they do for the Clerys workers who were constructively dismissed irrespective of their years of service, their promise of a pension? What did the unions do to halt the ailing employers making decisions to effect savings by sob stories to workers and conning them into zero hour contracts and then just dismissing them, while asking them to work out their two weeks. Who cares?
In the US - the shut-down; the potential US bankruptcy now postponed to early 2014 for further negotiation, is beginning to recognise the costs of an under represented, under paid, service sector. It is reported that McDonalds management recently did some research and came to the conclusion that they would not be able to live on the salaries paid to the workers even if they were to take on a second job. Some economists speculate that if the minimum wage was doubled, it might kickstart the market becase these people would have money to spend.
In 2002, it was never anticipated that the dole queues in excess of 300,000 would exist. We never envisaged emigrants from our shores. What happened to all the dues paid to these people and their dues paid? We know they are fighting the case of the public sector and securing the best deals they can get for them. But what about the young doctors who are members of the IMO; the IMO (consultants and doctors trade union) that pays out a reduced pension pot from 24 million euros to 9.7 m euros for former Chief Executive Mr McNeice aged 50+? What about the slush fund siphoned in the HSE/SIPTU scandal and the missing 4 million euros? The pendulum has swung and the hardship is now the order of the day, so let the trade unions start focusing on their ex-workers who are now unemployed and the potential young quotient of our population who will hopefully one day be workers for the Irish economy and society.
Maybe Mr Derwin's time is now. Maybe we need an end to social partnership because now circumstances are such that we have 300,000 unemployed; 300,000 emigrated, and who knows how many on the FAS merry-go-round of courses ad infinitum.
Austerity is biting deep. The elderly - are they being represented by the trade unions they once paid union dues to. I don't think so. It's about ignoring the vulnerable these days.
To quote from the original post: it is time to think beyond.
'Dublin Shop Steward to challenge Union establishment. Derwin calls for an end to Social Partnership and for Democratic Reform in SIPTU'
What Does 'He' Stand For ?
· An end to social partnership
· Democratic control of SIPTU by its members
· Support for any public sector members who wish to reject the Benchmarking Report in order to seek better deals.
· A National Minimum Wage of €8 per hour.
· Action to bridge the gap between the average earnings of women and men.
· Statutory union recognition and a major recruitment drive.
· SIPTU and the ICTU should be campaigning more actively for improved health and social services and against health cuts and double-taxation service charges.
· An immediate increase in statutory redundancy payments to three and a half weeks per year of service. The current rate as shown in the recent I G B dispute is totally unacceptable.
Water metering is the next imposition of the Austerity drive on the ordinary citizens of Ireland. Who has been awarded this contract.....rumour suggests it could be a Denis O'Brien.