RSF call for boycott of Irish Ferries.

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release

Saturday November 26, 2005 15:42

by Des Dalton - Republican Sinn Féin

saoirse at iol dot ie

Statement by Republican Sinn Fein Vice President Des Dalton.

Republican Sinn Fein are calling for a boycott of Irish Ferries as we believe this is the most effective way people can show support and solidarity to the workers of Irish Ferries.

These workers are currently locked in a dispute which goes to the root of what a Trade Union Movement is about. This dispute is a defining moment for the Irish Trade Union Movement; the support of IBEC for Irish Ferries is ominous and has echoes of William Martin Murphy's Employer's Federation attempt, during the 1913 lockout, to beat into submission ordinary working men and women. What is happening now is an attempt to roll back the hard fought for rights and working conditions won by Irish workers in the years since 1913.

This is a challenge that must be met head on. The stakes are high; a victory for Irish Ferries would give the green light for wholesale exploitation. What we are witnessing is the playing out of the globalisation agenda, a world where the most vulnerable, in this case migrant workers, are exploited and used to set one section of the working class against the other. This is not simply an attack on the workers of Irish Ferries but is an attack on the pay, conditions and working time of every worker in Ireland. Republican Sinn Fein calls on every Irish working person to come out in support of the Irish Ferries' workers day of action' on Friday next, December 2.

Ends.

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Comments (4 of 4)

I will be boycotting Irish Ferries anyway.

by John

Sat Nov 26, 2005 23:21

johnmcduff at eircom dot net

Garvaghy Road, Portadown, Co Armagh.

Yes, i will be boycotting Irish Ferries in protest over their treatment of the Irish workers there. Irish Ferries only care about profit and not about the welfare of their existing workers.

Err right

by Joe Black

Sun Nov 27, 2005 14:05

Presuambly RSF are aware that SIPTU is not calling for such a boycott on the not unreasonable grounds that their members are still working on the ferries?

I know calling for a 'boycott' has unfortunately become a common way of acting like you are doing something but is there not something obviously ludicrous in calling for a boycott of a company in other to protect the jobs of those working there (and over their heads!!). A boycott would only start to make sense if mangement succeed in their plan to force the workers off the ferries.

facing the wrong way

by Barrington

Mon Nov 28, 2005 20:36

I think calling for a boycott is the wrong approach. It adds to this idea that we are all consumers and that our collective power lies in the fact we are consumers. It is the industrial muscle of workers that is the key aspect to winning this dispute. The action taken by the dockers in Rosslare and Dublin port shows the way forward. Whilst the slogan or demand for a blockade, or even the act itself, can be a useful tool at certain stages of a dispute - AS AN AUXILLARY TO strike action, to call, and indeed to limit your call to boycott shows a real lack of fate in the capability of workers to take effective action to defend their interests.

Workers across the country should in the next few days, in whatever way they can, raise the need for ALL workers to take solidarity action. This should, in my opinion include, petitions, leaflets among your workmates, calling for industrial action, calling for a national stoppage of all workers. Meetings should be convened of members to discuss the issue of solidarity action and votes should be taken mandating officials, shop stewards etc to work for this type of action through the union structures were possible, outside them were necessary. to base this struggle on any other basis (like boycotts) is to turn your back on the workers movement and is facing the wrong way. Face the working class - not the consumers!!!

not just irish workers

by taff - my own

Sun Feb 12, 2006 13:25

when irish ferries take such liberties with its workers its not just irish workers that suffer but we welsh do to, and it seems nobody cares about us here! i think its all a bad mess!!

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RSF call for boycott of Irish Ferries.

Comments (4 of 4)