Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I thank the Chairman for giving me the opportunity to raise this important matter in the Adjournment debate. Today I support the Coca Cola workers who are in dispute. I speak as a former Coca Cola worker who worked on the company's lorries as a helper for many years. I urge the Minister of State to support the SIPTU members concerned and I urge the company to listen to the genuine grievances of the staff. This is the fifth week of the dispute and the company will not listen to the Labour Court recommendations.

At a meeting in Liberty Hall in August it was decided by the SIPTU strike committee that pickets would remain in place at Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, HBC, Ireland depots in Dublin, Cork, Tuam, and Tipperary, because of the company's refusal to address the issues at the centre of the dispute, including its decision to outsource the jobs of 130 distribution and warehouse staff.

Coca Cola HBC revealed profits of €201 million in the six months to the end of June and has begun a process of restructuring in Ireland, Austria and Italy, cutting almost 5,000 jobs since 2008. Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Limited is a Greek-based company in which the US Coca Cola company has a 23% stake.

The strike committee has always said that any discussions to resolve the dispute must be without preconditions and that the company must follow agreed industrial relations procedures and allow all parties to air their views. This dispute will continue for as long as these workers are denied the right to be employed by Coca Cola HBC. I am appalled at the manner in which a multibillion euro global company is treating 130 Irish workers. This is before we have the vote on the Lisbon treaty and the rights of workers. It is happening in Ireland today, pre-Lisbon.

Coco Cola HBC has threatened and intimidated these workers into accepting a redundancy package which they do not want. The company has threatened workers with injunctions and, to date, two workers on the picket lines have been injured, one requiring hospitalisation, as a result of having been hit by a vehicle that crossed the peaceful picket lines.

It is ironic that in 50 years of relationships with SIPTU and the former ITGWU there was never the need for any form of industrial action. The new management's attitude to industrial relations in the company and towards the institutions of the State is a breach of all previous agreements which have served both parties very well for more than 50 years.

I pay tribute to, and to support the staff of the Tuam plant. I commend Eugene Carty and the SIPTU members for their dedication, efforts, dignity and patience over the past five weeks. I stand by them in the Dáil today. They have a genuine grievance and all our industrial relations machinery has proved them correct.

It is not good enough for the company to act in an arrogant manner, especially in the current economic climate. I call on the management team to meet soon and resolve this matter. It is a blatant injustice to leave these workers out in the cold for five weeks. I urge the Minister of State to use any clout he has to force the company to move. Stagnation is not an option. All that the SIPTU members want is fair play and justice.

I urge all Members of the Dáil and Seanad to support the SIPTU Coca Cola HBC strikers and do their best to end this dispute.

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