Mr. John Ward:

I wish to mention a few issues here. For several years now, only Mr. Arkins has given people someone to go to for hope. We were abandoned by SIPTU several years ago. I paid my money just as everybody else did. We came to an issue about employment and SIPTU turned its back on us. It told us that we were self-employed and it could not represent us. This was after it had taken our money for several years. I have seen people pursue different avenues. Nobody could help them and they had nobody to go to. We were left in that situation. Mr. John Arkins and his association were the only people that gave me a bit of hope and tried to help me in my situation. As I said, I have been in the business for 20 years. Just because I gave out about my hours, I am being blackballed. It is nothing to do with my work or anything else.

During that process, GMB came along. GMB has given us hope as well, and wants to negotiate on our behalf. However, these people do not seem to want to negotiate. Basically, the whole industry is about greed. It is a question of how much money these people want to make out of the industry by taking it out of the ordinary person's pocket every day of the week. I stood up and asked about my hours last year and I was told that I had 55 hours a week under contract. I worked on "Vikings" from the very start and I was on the job for 70 hours a week. I stood in a field for 15 hours a week and was not paid for it. How is that right?