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Wildcat strike in Musgrave Warehouse In Dublin dublin |
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feature
 Saturday April 28, 2007 17:51 by xyz
 Warehouse Crew Down Tools Against Discrimination
Migrant Workers In Solidarity With Irish Ferries
On 27th of April a spontaneous wildcat strike broke out in MUSGRAVE warehouses in Dublin. The whole crew, around 80 people, both immigrant and natives - in solidarity stopped their work after successive acts of discrimination by the management.
Related Links: Nurses Call For Health System Based On Solidarity | September UCD Report | Polish Workers Wildcat at Tescos | Indymedia Workers Archive SIPTU - Trade Union | IWU - Trade Union | SIPTU Contract Workers Win In UCD | Joanne Delaney Gets Reinstated | Polish Workers Wildcat at Tescos Musgrave is a big Irish corporation, which owns Cetra and Supervalu in the Republic of Ireland, Londis and Budgens in Great Britain and other networks in Spain. In their warehouse in Dublin, where the strike started, immigrants make up around 50% of the staff, officially employed by work agencies and hired by (or rather rented to) MUSGRAVE.Many of them are Polish. Agency workers are continuously discriminated by managers, their work conditions are definitively worse, they're paid less and haven't got any rights. Their situation was getting worse week after week. Part of the them joined the Independent Workers Union, few joined SIPTU, the biggest union in Ireland, off which all the Irish staff employed directly by MUSGRAVE are members.
On the day of the strike, one of the managers gave out a new work schedule for the agency workers. Their breaks were cut short compared to the old ones. According to the new rules, the agency workers were meant to work four hours in a row, and it is important to mention that the temperature in there warehouse is just around 4 degrees Celsius! At the same time, contract workers kept their right to a break every hour. The same day, one of the agency workers got fired because he couldn't find a pallet with the article that he was meant to distribute. Although that the mistake, as it was noticed, was made by the manager, he held up his decision, and sent the worker home for no reason. This day, the segregation of orders - good ones for Irish and bad ones for the immigrants was too much to stand. The agency workers stopped their work and moved to the canteen. After few minutes the Irish workers joined them, loudly manifesting their support for the strike. The strike broke out at 7pm.
After less then an hour, representatives of the three agencies which rent workers to MUSGRAVE came. Using threats and pleading they tried to convince the workers to come back to work, but they got hissed. Soon after that the representatives of SIPTU and the agency workers unionised in IWU came. The first of them tried to use a tactic of compromise, underlining the alleged illegality of the strike. He tried to bluff people into believing that they can achieve anything with negotiations and legal steps. But he didn't manage to convince neither the agency workers nor, what's even more interesting, workers from his own union, SIPTU, employed on contracts. The representatives of the IWU called out for the continuation of the strike and hard demands. Soon he was removed by the security on the order of MUSGRAVE'S chief. He was meant to say that only SIPTU is operating in the warehouse and no other unions got the right to be here. In response to that the agency workers didn't agree for any negotiations and stayed in the canteen. Meanwhile the IWU representative, 65 years old Ray O'Reill spent about 2 hours waiting in front of the warehouse gates. In the same time, MUSGRAVE management, together with the SIPTU leader (sic!) tried to convince agency workers on Irish workers remaining on their side to come back to work. They threatened everybody with loss of work and illegality of the strike. Workers unionised in SIPTU successfully countered the arguments of their leader, and continued to support their friends from agencies. In the end the whole group of agency workers that wanted to meet the IWU representative left the site and went to meet him outside the gate. It was agreed there that the night shift is going to go back to work, and the rest goes back home. It was also decided to postpone any further actions to Tuesday. Then, agency workers of all shifts are going to come to MUSGRAVE together for the talks with the management.
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Comments (49 of 49)
Jump To Comment: 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1That's what this is. Exaggerated. Long time ago, and I have no idea why you're all giving Mr Keeley a hard time he's a very respected member in the company, soni don't think you have any right to comment on him and /or his reputation.
I SEE MUSGRAVES HAVE TAKEN CONTROL OF BAGNELLS IN ROCHFORDBRIDGE, ITS ABOUT TIME SOMEONE PUT THAT SCUMBAG IN HIS PLACE, LETS SEE HIM TRY AND TALK DOWN THAT LOT AND TRY AND BULLY THEM. UP YOURS ROBERT AND YOUR SCUMBAG SIBLINGS.
i am not surprised at the older comments on this thread,as a londis worker i am horrified at the work conditions now introduced at londis rdc since the musgrave takeover,a knackered amt system bought second hand from tescos,no maintenance on lollups/flts everything cut to the bone,accidents and health and safety issues.saw the pick rate of 100 cases an hour on earlier thread,i picked 220 cases a hour the other day overall for a 8 hr shift with only half an lunch.my scanner read 85% at end of shift.with staff been told this week bonus to be reintroduced set at 105%.im glad as im agency i have a choice of where i work,i feel sorry for the fulltime workers that are about to lose half their weekly income.it seems musgrave uk is no different from musgrave irl,and abuse agency workers whether foreign or english as i am.about time someone cut them down to size.
This is happening all around the world. This terrorist capitalism sees persons not like cats, wild or not, but just as means to make money. THAT´S ALL. Only if we unit, without regard of colour of our skin, origin, sex, " nationality", age, etc... we´ll be strong to face this FIGHT. I have been living in Scotland for three years. When the people from the new countries of the EU united, many of them went there, mainly Polish, and from other countries.... I've been exploited as well, and I could see how they were used many times as cheap workforce. Many of them are students, other are not, but a pound in Poland or Slovakia, for example, it worths four time this money in Spain, or France..... So they were usually "happy" with those conditions, but.....they are not stupid, of course... In one of my jobs in Inverness, Scotland, one manager so nazi, authoritarian,(the name of the company is "BELLA ITALIA", a chain of restaurants) was using the many Polish people there to try to divide the staff....finally I was dismissed for the big crime of wearing moustache and get sick one day....as usual, the corporative image was relaxed, "bella", but inside is other world...harassment, non-stop work, ten minutes break.....It is time to STOP ALL THIS NEW NAZIS!!!
I mean UNION IS STRENGHT....the only way to fight this really WILD (in the bad sense)CAPITALISM, THE FIRST TERRORIST FORCE. From Spain...ˇVIVA LA CLASE TRABAJADORA! UP WORKING CLASS!!!
Did any of you read the translated report on the discrimination in the Musgraves depot? Check it out.
In the past year a total of 3 operations managers & 3 line managers have left this depot. 6 managers in 1 year !!!
These people were very well paid & not to hard worked, despite that they still walked away. Perhaps living the "company values" took its toll on them, or maybe they saw the writing on the wall & as is in their nature they left a sinking ship!!!
I had the misfortune to work in the depot in question, and yes while IR issues, this is mainly due to the fact the union in there has lost the workforce, the mountain dwelling idiots like Guerilla have led the sheep into something they cannot back out of, as they have not the brains to stop, nor want to lose 'face'.
Management have given up trying, as why waste time on lost causes?? which is a shame because good operatives have suffered.
Also MSVC bottle the chance to act, wanting to sit back and wait, for what?? they have moved managers on who acted, as apposed to the small group who run the Fonthill Asylum. Only Cork make the call and Fonthill sits, like a sinking ship - waiting for their iceberg!!
Answer - Shut the place down and move on.
Those who suffer are the ones who want to keep working there, leave them to it, and more so help them.. look at those who have left. the lucky ones......
It is those on the warehouse floor who abuse and dictate, threaten and bully, and should have been sacked years ago, same shit every day, who needs it.
Times change, the depot never will!
Musgrave yesterday settled its dispute with Kay El and the court case will not now proceed. There is no information about how much this will cost Musgrave in addition to the 3/4 million already forfeited to the court for breach of contract. The possibility of demos outside the courthouse caused by Noel Keeley could have been an influence.
Musgrave is in the High Court on Tuesday 26/06/2007. The case has not been assigned a judge or courtroom as yet - check the Legal diary at http://www.courts.ie next week - 2005 829S MUSGRAVE LTD T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU CENTRA LTD V KAY-EL (HK) (FH/4WKS).
The case is estimated to last 4 weeks - get there on Tuesday morning and get some coverage.
It seems our string has opened up a real can of worms (or should I say, nest of vipers) The latest attempt by the Musgrave heirarchy to undermine & short change the employees in Fonthill is to offer redundancies to some of its fulltime staff, but despite its huge profits the company are offering a paultry 5.5 weeks for every year of service...!
These workers went from picking & distributing 60,000 cases per week in 1998 to an average of 330,000 cases per week today. The business was built on their sweat, hard work & determination but when it comes to a redundancy scenario does Musgraves reflect this....? NO....!
The company wants these people to sell themselves & their contracts cheaply so they can replace them with Polish workers @ 9.33 per hour including sundays & bank holidays.
To the intelligent Irish public I say this, don't believe the hype & the "your friendly neighbourhood Supervalu & Centra" bullshit, this is a corporate giant with only huge profits & exploitation of its workforce at its heart.
As a Cork chill employee, we see a lot of the same, regarding casual workers in our depot.
Some are treated as 2nd class citizens no matter how hard they work or their country of origin.
Musgraves has a long way to go to live up to their 'company values' which hang off the depot roof, one of which is 'Long term, stable relationships'.
Don't make me laugh.
mr truth, an ops manager no doubt?
thank you for disclosing all our personal stuff salary ect,
its good,
but a long way off your 60-65k
as a hard worker in fonthill for 8 years iv seen first hand
the way these polish people are treated and its far from
good. on one occaision i seen a man finish a 12 hour
shift to be told stay back an hour or two, when the man
said he could not he was told not to come back.
this sort of thing goes on most days in this depot.
the senior managers in musgraves [ cork,
the big boys] need to start training ops managers
and line managers and stand up line managers on how to
treat people, because it is the big boys that call the shots.
come on musgraves do the right thing give these people
a contract, give them the same pay, give them the same
conditions, GIVE THEM RESPECT. WE ARE ALL HUMAN.
In regard to the under-cutting of locally-sourced labour by agency workers of the Irish Ferries / Musgrave pattern of exploitation developing in Ireland, there is a judgement due later today in the European Court of Justice.
Musgrave said they had no control over their own workers’ pay because they were employed by an agency outside Ireland. The rulings will determine whether Irish labour conditions and protections will apply to all people working in Ireland.
On 27th of April a spontaneous wildcat strike broke out in Musgrave warehouses in Dublin. The whole crew, around 80 people, both immigrant and natives - in solidarity stopped their work after successive acts of discrimination by the management. Musgrave is a big Irish corporation, which owns Cetra and Supervalu in the Republic of Ireland, Londis and Budgens in Great Britain and other networks in Spain. In their warehouse in Dublin, where the strike started, immigrants make up around 50% of the staff, officially employed by work agencies and hired by (or rather rented to) Musgrave. Many of them are Polish. Agency workers are continuously discriminated against by managers, their working conditions are definitively worse, they�re paid less and haven�t got any rights. Their situation was getting worse week after week. On the day of the strike, one of the managers gave out a new work schedule for the agency workers. Workers� breaks were cut short and they were expected to work for four hours in a row, in temperatures of around 4 degrees Celsius!
At the same time, contract workers kept their right to a break every hour. The same day, one of the agency workers was fired on flimsy grounds This discrimination was too much for the workers to take. At around 7pm the agency workers stopped working and moved to the canteen. After a few minutes the Irish workers joined them, loudly showing their support for the strike.
After less then an hour, representatives of the three agencies which supply workers to Musgrave came. Using threats and pleading they tried to convince the workers to go back to work, but they got hissed. Both Irish and immigrant workers agreed that it is a common fight to maintain the achievements of the union movement and their high standards of work. Not long ago Musgrave tried to cut most of the privileges of their workers. The strike ended half an hour after midnight.
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5655
According to the Irish Examiner, "SIPTU to name and shame firms exploiting immigrants - ONE of the largest unions in the country is set to publish a list of companies and recruitment agencies they claim are exploiting immigrant employees. .... Last week the issue was highlighted when it emerged that agency workers employed at Musgrave distribution centre in Dublin were earning almost half what the company’s own employees get. Musgrave said they had no control over the workers’ pay as they were employed by the agency, but added it had begun negotiations with SIPTU to try to take the affected workers onto its own books."
That is a very strange kind of "no control", just like those very modern practices at Irish Ferries - except Musgrave workers are on shore, living and eating Irish prices.
Attention : Free Press Reporters
According to the Legal Diary there is a hearing of the Musgrave and Kay El case at the High Court in Dublin on Friday [FOR FRIDAY 18TH MAY - 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED (Case Management Conference) (Kelly J)] and the full case is scheduled for up to three weeks next month [FOR TUESDAY 26THJUNE - 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED (FH) (3 Weeks)]
This case is about breach of business contract and has nothing to do with employment practices, but as one of Ireland's largest employers and companies, there should at least be business press in attendance - and they might be interested in the previous judgement of unlawful HR practices in relation to this dispute.
The Judge welcomes you all to attend the court hearings
What Musgraves did againstKay-el , their long term supplier cannot be described , but they did loose one of their best and reliable supplier in the Far East - for just to protect the wrong doings and blunders of the key people in their buying team.
Legal Diary Part 1 - Today’s Cases - Friday 18th December 2007
IN COURT 7 BEFORE MS JUSTICE FINLAY GEOGHEGAN AT 11.00 O’CLOCK - 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED (Case Management Conference)
Any workers on 8.30 euro per hour at 2 degrees want to give moral support to the directors who just shared 4 million in dividends?
Musgrave Group financial results are out today http://www.musgrave.ie/aboutusa.php?id=37 and Ireland's second largest employer (with 24,000 direct employees) boasts of
- Profit before tax €81 million, up 14.2%
- Debt reduced by 46.9 million
- Shareholder dividends up 5%
They aren't so boastful of:
- Total wages are up just 0.9%, less than the increase in the number of employees (i.e. effective salary has fallen)
- 23.3 million of the reduced debt is accounted for by changing the staff pension scheme (Pg 50: "an increase in the interest rate used to discount future scheme liabilities along with a special employer contribution to the ROI scheme of €5.2 million during 2006, in addition to a €10.0 million special contribution in 2005")
- Musgrave Group pension contributions are down 19% from 24.3 to 19.8 million, while staff contributions are up 4%
- But that will not concern those receiving 2.1 million in share-based payments
With profit up by 14% when turnover is up just 4%, it is the workers who are paying the director and shareholder dividends, and reducing Group debt.
Noel Keeley, Group HR Manager
According to the Legal Diary there is a hearing of the Musgrave and Kay El case at the High Court in Dublin on Friday [FOR FRIDAY 18TH MAY - 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED (Case Management Conference) (Kelly J)] and the full case is scheduled for up to three weeks next month [FOR TUESDAY 26THJUNE - 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED (FH) (3 Weeks)]
This case is about breach of business contract and has nothing to do with employment practices, but as one of Ireland's largest employers and companies, there should at least be business press in attendance - and they might be interested in the previous judgement of unlawful HR practices in relation to this dispute.
Has there been any developments? Will the protest continue?
MMMM...some very interesting comments, now can everyone please get back and finish the pick ha ha. Senior managment in cork are keeping a close eye on this site. I wonder will they now realise they have a very serious problem with the way the fonthill depot is being managed. Its obvious they dont pay any attention to the employee survey we fill out evey year. I would like to make a point on the sick pay. We need it as its a dangerous place to work, lack of equipment and congestion are real problems. How many guys have been hurt in there over the past nine years??. We all have employee numbers....thats all we are to the company, just another number. As long as the cases are delivered to our supervalu and centra stores all is well, or so they think. Its about time senior managment get to fonthill and do some serious ass kicking. Patience is running out and if things dont change very very soon it will be an (official strike) and as we all know the only publicity MUSGRAVE enjoy is good publicity. Keep the comments coming in lads....as i said, cork is watching.
Musgrave lawyers are meeting tomorrow morning (Tuesday) prior to attending the High Court on Friday before Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the dispute with Kay El (in which Musgrave has already forfeited 3/4 million euro for breach of contract), http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELA...1.asp - there is no information about the time and location of Tuesday's meeting but Friday's is probably 11:00 am - the Legal Diary at www.courts.ie says "FOR FRIDAY 18TH MAY 2005 00829 S MUSGRAVE LIMITED T/A MUSGRAVE SUPERVALU-CENTRA LIMITED V KAY EL (HONG KONG) LIMITED. (Case Management Conference) (Kelly J)".
One could suppose that placards at the High Court at the correct date and time might be noticed.
Mr. Justice Gilligan delivered a judgement on the 24th day of June, 2005 to the effect that Mr Keeley's management actions were ILLEGAL (http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ie/cases/....html):
the appointment of [an external investigator] by Mr. Keeley was ultra vires as the latter had no authority to make such an appointment. .... it is submitted that, in the absence of such a [disciplinary] procedure, the Director of Human Resources, Mr. Keeley, decided to "make one up himself". This was quite simply ultra vires.
(see also http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ie/cases/....html)
Profile: http://www.naymz.com/search/noel/keeley/494256 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/b4/a1a
Musgrave strike: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007050...58134 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/may2007/wkrs-m04.shtml http://libcom.org/news/wildcat-strike-musgrave-warehous...42007
There was a small piece on the six o'clock news yesterday 11 May about Musgrave but it was reported two weeks after the event.
How can Musgrave a company named as one of the top 50, employ these people to head their HR department, unless as commonly suspected they want to out all Irish workers and replace them with agency workers, not just in the warehouse but throughout every department in the organization?
Mr Keeley's HR practices have attracted attention before as detailed in http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78749 where it says:
"I am no stranger to the inside of a courtroom." boasted Mr Noel Keeley, thankfully now a former Vice President for Human Resources at UCC, on the 19th March 2003, and clearly untroubled by all this implied about his success in his job.
His appointment practices were criticised in a letter from Prof Desmond M. Clarke reproduced in http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78749:
6. When the Vice-President for Human Resources made an appointment to a post in UCC without public advertisement, two members of the GB requested confidential access to the appointment file [since the GB is legally responsible for making appointments of all staff]. You blocked access for 9 months. When access was eventually granted, the two GB members found that Mr. Keeley had appointed someone [not identified here] to a post on a ‘post proposal form’, and that you subsequently appointed the same person to a permanent post in UCC. The GB members in question sent a report to the GB. This item was put on the agenda for the meeting of 8.11.05, in accordance with the regulations. However, the report was from the GB, and you asked the GB to defeat the motion before it was discussed. The GB agreed. Thus a report on this appointment, prepared by two members of the GB, was withheld from the GB meeting and then rejected without having been seen.
NB: Mr Noel Keeley is aware of these comments and says:
This comment (and several others listed below) are false, inaccurate, unsubstantiated and melicious and are clearly made with the intent of damaging my good name and reputation.
Err, no actually. This is his reputation, as widely reported in the newspapers, see http://www.geocities.com/stuartdneilson/UCC_Reference.h...tm#IE for instance the Irish Examiner of 15th September last year http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2006/09/15/story13...2.asp printed "Among his allegations, Prof Clarke claimed: Corruption in making appointments."
He also wrote the article "Employee Survey - should we listen?", a question he is busy answering in deed rather than word.
http://pl.indymedia.org/media/2007/05//28583.pdf
I have watched this string develop & would to add the following comments,
(1) The comments from musgrave employees in other depots shows that this is not an isolated incident
(2) It has not been highlighted by the media because musgraves has its tentacles running through the media & some political parties
(3) Don't be nieve enough to think that the top brass in Cork know nothing of this, they DO, they just don't care
(4) Musgraves would love to make most of its Irish workforce redundant & replace them with cheap immigrant workers, they're just afraid of the backlash & adverse publicity (remember Irish Ferries...?)
(5) To those employees adopting the "ostrich" philosophy I say this, burying your head in the sand wont help. Just because its not happening to you doesn't make it right...
(6) To "Jack" I say this, a gorilla is a large mountain dwelling primate, a guerilla is something completely different... Look it up...! There's more than one type of ignorance.
The real truth is that Musgraves do not want any full time employees in this depot.They are trying to replace all permentant jobs with low paid agency workers.Their new brand slogan is REAL FOOD FOR REAL PEOPLE, it should be ,REAL JOBS FOR REAL PEOPLE . ..
Well !!!!! All Musgrave Warehouse workers how happy are you that Mr Truth in all his 'intelligence' has publicy disclosed your private and confidential information to all and sundry. Tsk Tsk NOT IN LINE WITH COMPANY VALUES.
Salary of 38k - Is far and above average for Musgrave and I would call on all operatives in all Depots to be brought in line with this and any drivers out there get yourselves a rise asap as you are being exploited!!! Supervisors ditto! Better still ask for a tranfer otherwise as per your contract if you have been employed for a year or over GO SICK as according to Mr Truth you will be paid in full. Pretty nice of them. Thought it was only 4 weeks after one year of service and one week for every year after that ahhhh how nice they have become!!! Now wouldn't we all like that 'luxury'? Also he implies that anyone out sick is not sick - not very nice mr truth not very nice. Well done Musgrave the only Company that offers a bonus to non-managerial staff unless of course it's the laughable christmas voucher offering which has to go back to the Company so they can claim it all back and so really they give damn all guys.
Share options are not viable for 3 years and you have to pay for your own pension.
Quote Mr Truth
'There are a lot of skilled employees in the Irish workforce who would love to boast this package'.
I'm damned sure there are a lot of Musgrave employees - warehouse staff , drivers . telesales ops managers clerical staff etc the list goes on who would also love to boast this package but can't so, to all of you who are not on this salary and are on permanent contract with Musgrave ask for a salary increase. If, however you happen to be buddies or worked previously with SHE DEVIL no doubt you are on more.
This has gone on too long and this Company has gotten away with too too much and they need to stop bullying and abusing people and getting away with it.Email that Musgrave family and let them know what 's happening THEY HAVE NO IDEA - just remember who the Group Hr Director is guys got away with in Cork thinks he is infallible - Prove him wrong!!!!!!
At last a reasonable comment on the situation. It is a good job, with good conditions which are not available in similar businesses. Yes, a lot of work needed in HR and IR management----A LOT. The last thing needed is knee-jerk reactions from poorly informed outsiders. Let the employees get on with the job and sort their problems in a CALM and FAIR manner which benefits all, per manent and agency alike. My comments are directed at everyone , including management.
.................each operative (permanent) working in this depot is on a salary of 38k, in receipt of share options, bonus payments, pension and full life cover. They also have the luxury of being able to go sick for up 364 days a year with full pay. It is no suprise that this sick pay scheme is being abused and as a result the genuine guys suffer. Real value of package is circa 50k and this for a 39hr week average. There are a lot of skilled employees in the Irish workforce who would love to boast this package. Musgraves is a good employer but do have work to do re IR issues.
This strike isn`t just only in interest of Poles. If immigrants will agree to work for the minimal wage and unhuman exploitation, chance for higher starting wages will be poor and convincing your employer to give you a raise will be almost impossible (you could hear "I can always employ someone cheaper, you know...furriner" and that`s the fastest way to create tension between Irish and immigrants). Many thanks for warm words from Irish m8s - we do aprecciate it.
Good to luck to the workers at Mus$ in theiir struggle for human working conditions
Don't get caught up in the Irish worker foreign worker dichotomy.
This is one of managements oldest tricks divide and conquer based on race.
We are all workers!
The penny pinching inhuman tactics employed by the mus$ management need to fought everywhere.
No self respecting worker should shop at any of Mus$'s retail outlets until the workers demands have been met.
Thanks to Indymedia for publishing the story.
I did not see it covered in any of the so called mainstream media
For your information I have Gorilla (think thats how you spell it) . I enjoyed it and when I decided it was no longer for me I moved on and improved my conditions without disrupting the business as I dont feel the world owes me a living.
The comments of "jack" are absolutely typical of the ignorant, I suspect he's another one who grinds work from migrant workers. Try working a shift in that depot & then comment on the conditions.
It doesnt sound all that bad, why dont you change your jobs if your not happy, instead of trying to grind the wheels of commerce to a halt. You choose your job so you change it aswell. Sick of this mentality
I have read the comments from the other musgrave employees with great interest, its interesting to see a common thread developing here. This is a very newsworthy development & I am surprised that no one from the popular media has followed this up. We are all used to seeing top musgraves executives in the newspapers accepting awards at the drop of a hat but do they really know the extent of the damage being done to the lowly workers morale, not to mention the mental stress endured by these forgotten minions.
There's something rotten in this depot..... and its not the eggs....!
i work in the depot in question.its about time the foreign workers realised they too have rights.for too long now both they and the irish workers have been treated like dirt by this company.musgraves try to brainwash their staff with "the company values" when it is they who need to live them.this company has long outstanding issues with their own staff stretching back over seven years but instead of trying to resolve these issues they use delaying tactics,throwing up smokescreens to avoid the real issues.the management in this depot are so arrogant they think they can get away anything.its a disgrace that this sort of attitude is still seen in the irish workplace in this day and age.well done to all of the the workers who decided enough was enough on friday.respect.
Just to let the author know it is actually 2 degrees not 4. I work in the same depot and is unfair to ask any person to work 4 hours straight.It is disgracful how our agency workers are treated.They are forced to pick over 100 cases an hour on a floor that is heavily congested.Some are made pick off steal cages because there is a shortage of equipment.I call on all immigrants to support this cause for equallity on pay and conditions.Can we get support from the unions in your country and your media.
Action was made in Musgrave Fonthill
Is this Musgraves the Wholesalers in Walkinstown?
Can you tell me where is it? In Kilkock?
Its not just poles who are treated badly a lot of the irish workers are treated like dirt too. This depot is riddled with discrimination. Its time the irish public knew.
I work in the depot in question. Musgraves pride themselves on their "good employee relations" but the truth is far from that. They want the Irish people to see them as one of their own & all for the community. The truth is that they are only interested in one thing...PROFITS...! The managers in that depot are racist, sexist & badly chosen so it is no wonder this has kicked off. There has never been a strike in the history of Musgraves so this will indicate how badly things have deterioated. The Polish workers work like slaves under threat of termination if they say anything, great to see SOLIDARNOSC is alive & well.
Wildcat strikes are ones which take place without formal union permission. It's not a pejorative term. Many left organisations have used it as their name.
Kudos to the Polish comrade who clearly has better English than Biker.
I was present at the strike on friday night . In my opinion both musgraves and the agency employers have forced the decent workers into this situation . This company boasts about huge profits but penny pinches and abuses staff (both agency and perminent workers) on a daily basis . This action was not about industrial relations issues , it was and is about human rights issues.
why do you assume that the translation is done by a native that knows that? :]
anyway I don't think that it sounds all so bad?
It is refreshing to witness some Irish and foreign workers fighting as a group against the unfair actions of the capitalist body and their assistants, SIPTU (Irelands biggest trade union). At least, there is an Irish trade union that will fight for its member’s interests. Great to see the Independent Workers Union representing, once again, it’s workers and their own interests.
Why do you have to call it a "wildcat" strike? This is a term invented by employers to bash workers. They're not cats, they're human!