Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The crisis has been used internationally and in Ireland by companies to drive down wages, conditions and pension rights. This is the reality people face every day. The company in question, Marks & Spencer, has stated it has problems but it will not show those problems in Ireland which has not introduced legislation to make it obligatory for companies to reveal their profits and turnover in Ireland alone. Instead, they merely show their international profits. Therefore, it is difficult for unions to negotiate and get such companies to prove their actual costs. The workers involved in this dispute in Marks & Spencer will lose between 20% and 30% of their wages. These workers are committed to mortgages, loans and the future of their children and have made plans on the basis of their current wages. However, on 31 October this company was able to unilaterally wind down the workers' defined benefit pension scheme. Does the Taoiseach stand over that? Does he accept that a company can do this to workers in Ireland or will he stand with those workers and tell them they have the right to strike and to defend their pay, conditions and pensions? Moreover, these workers will be out again next Thursday, as well as Friday of next week, and I appeal to everyone not to pass those picket lines, if the doors are open, to defend these workers.

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