Support Unite Union Strike By Plumbers, Fitters and Welders

Unions that fight get results. This has been shown by plumbers, fitters and welders who are members of the Unite Trade union. The threat of strike action last year won them a pay increase of 9.9% over two years - which was 4.5% more than the deal offered by the Labour Court.

The one day actions at Pfizer and Intel showed bosses that workers and the union were serious about taking action.

And now workers have voted by 90% to strike for restoration of the first hour of travel time. This payment was cut during the austerity years but never restored despite massive profits being made by the fat cats that run the construction industry.

Unite Regional officer James McCabe said:

“Our members returned a clear mandate for industrial action after we had exhausted all other avenues to resolve the travel time issue. If employers want to avoid an autumn of disruption, I would urge them to come back to the table and negotiate a reversal of the austerity-era cut to travel time.”

When faced with militant workers the bosses immediately try to use the power of their state to keep us down - H A O’Neil, part of the Jones Engineering Group tried to get an injunction to prevent strike action, won in the High Court but lost in the Supreme Court.

Unite regional coordinating officer Tom Fitzgerald said:

“For too long, employers have attempted to use the courts in order to prevent workers taking action to defend their living standards."

Workers in every union in Ireland need to take note: action pays and Unite is getting results for it’s members by fighting back and organising real actions. Talk is cheap, action pays.

Ultimately workers need to use every action as a window of opportunity to build up rank and file coordination across our unions to put pressure on the bureaucracy who remain wed to social partnership - the bosses are our exploiters, not our parters.

We have to connect a renewed focus on worker action and connect worker power to an ambitious political goal - to challenge the Irish state, kick out those who represent bosses and landlords and fight for a working class, socialist Ireland.