Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish Dunnes Stores would turn up the volume and listen to the workers. A total of 70% of Dunnes Stores employees are women and 76% of workers are on flexible contracts. Many supermarkets have reached agreement with trade unions on the matter, but Dunnes Stores seem to be unwilling to do so. We have less than a week to go. From listening to the workers the other day it appears there is a lot of pressure on people not to go out on strike. Work hours are being used as part of that pressure. People are being told that if they go on strike they will not be given work hours in the following week. In this day and age it is wrong that such a practice would exist. It is as if the situation that existed in the mills in England in the 19th century is still in place. Surely some mechanism is available to bring the parties around a table along the old-style LRC system that we could initiate over the weekend to try to stop a strike from happening and to try to bring common sense and alleviate the pressure that is now on workers in every Dunnes Stores outlet across the country today.

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