Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:on the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Lock-out, salutes the titanic struggle of the working class of Dublin for workers' rights, trade union rights, and a decent and dignified life;

notes:

-- the brutal methods of the employers of Dublin, led by the then owner of Independent Newspapers William Martin Murphy, as they attempted to protect their profits by smashing the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, ITGWU, through starving its members into renouncing their union membership;

-- that the employers commanded the full support of the State including the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Judiciary;

-- that the employers had the full support of the Catholic Church, which sought to stigmatise striking workers and used the pulpit to denounce workers' leaders like James Larkin and James Connolly and the socialist ideas that informed their struggle;

-- that the capitalist and right wing press of the day was relentless in its support for the employers and rabid in its campaign of vilification and slander against the workers and their leaders; and

-- that the hostility of the employers to the ITGWU members arose from the militant and effective tactics advocated by Connolly and Larkin and embraced by unskilled workers in the years preceding 1913, in particular, the sympathy strike which was a powerful expression of working class solidarity summed up by the concept that "an injury to one is an injury to all";

recognises that, irrespective of the difficult circumstances in which the Lock-out finished for workers, their sacrifices and struggle were a vital foundation stone for the development of the Irish labour and trade union movement and workers' rights in subsequent generations and up to the present day;

further notes that:

-- in 2013 the ethos driving the bailout of the financial markets system and the austerity agenda is exactly the same as that driving the Dublin employers, that is, the protection of corporate profit and the profit system;

-- the socialist ideas espoused by Connolly and Larkin as an alternative to the capitalism of their day are as relevant in addressing today's economic crisis;

-- in enacting the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013, the Government employs William Martin Murphy style blackmail in that, while he demanded workers sign a pledge to disavow the ITGWU, the Government demands that unless public sector workers sign up to a programme of cuts to wages and conditions, the Government will inflict even worse on them;

-- the Labour Party, which came into being as a result of workers' struggles in the years preceding 1913, is guilty of abject betrayal in driving the austerity agenda at enormous cost to working people, the unemployed, pensioners and the poor;

-- those trade union leaders who try to justify recommending an acceptance of more austerity to their members by claiming they are defending them from worse, are in fact guaranteeing that conditions will worsen in the years ahead and, in this collusion with the austerity agenda, dishonour the men and women who waged the 1913 struggle and it's leaders like Larkin and Connolly;

-- today, efforts made by the trade union movement to organise, particularly in the private sector, typically meet with employer resistance and hostility;

-- employers resisting trade union recognition today enjoy the protection of current laws and the courts;

-- Registered Employment Agreements and Employment Regulation Orders providing certain important legislative protection for workers have been struck down;

-- employers seeking to impede effective picketing can typically with ease obtain injunctions from the courts which are then enforced by the Garda thus enabling strikebreaking operations to take place;

-- employees seeking redress for unfair dismissal at the Employment Appeals Tribunal have an average wait of more than a year;

-- awards made in favour of employees by the Employment Appeals Tribunal, under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2007, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005 and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, for unfair dismissals, non-payment of wages in lieu of notice and non-payment of holiday pay respectively are often unenforceable when the offending company ceases trading or goes into liquidation; and

-- similar delays and problems with enforcement of cases successfully brought to the Rights Commissioner under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 also occur; and

resolves:

-- that a trade union recognition bill be passed this year to make it mandatory for employers to recognise trade unions;

-- that sections of the Industrial Relations Acts 1969 to 2001 that impede effective strike action, including solidarity or secondary action, should be repealed;

-- that adequate resources are made available to the Employment Appeals Tribunal and Rights Commissioner that will allow cases to be heard within four weeks;

-- that legislation be enacted to place employees owed wages, redundancy pay and Employment Appeal Tribunal awards by firms that have ceased trading or entered liquidation, first in the hierarchy of creditors;

-- that a scheme of financial and other State supports be made, with immediate effect, to assist communities in Dublin and elsewhere to mark the centenary anniversary of the 1913 Lock-out with appropriate commemorative and educational events;

-- that an appropriate memorial be established to commemorate the 1913 Lock-out, recognising the sacrifices made and, in particular, the five workers who lost their lives in the struggle; and

-- to encourage workers and trade unionists to resist austerity in 2013 with the same solidarity and fighting spirit displayed by their predecessors during the 1913 Lock-out.

I will share time with Deputies Joan Collins, Finian McGrath, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, Mattie McGrath and Patrick Nulty.

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