Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I repeat that assertion now. Nobody who has ever been at the coalface of union organising would do anything to stand in the way of this legislation. Anyone who has ever tried to organise workers, as I did when I sat with them in their kitchens, in my car and in the back rooms of pubs, knows that workers are terrified when they think the whole world is on the side of their bosses. The Government and its best friends and helpers in Fianna Fáil are on the side of the bosses rather than on the side of the workers. They should be ashamed because they have never had to consider what it would be like to feel intimidated in their own workplaces. I assure those who look to the Dáil, the Government or the local Fianna Fáil Deputy when they want to see who is on their side and who will help them that trade unions, members of Sinn Féin and the Deputies who will support this Bill are firmly on the side of workers, but the Minister and her best friends in Fianna Fáil are on the side of the bosses, those who seek to terrorise and intimidate workers in their own workplaces and those who do not care if their workers are petrified when they come to work.

As far as those who pursue a policy of supposed flexibility are concerned, flexibility is when workers will work all day and beyond for very little reward because they are afraid. The Minister must have lived a very charmed life if she does not see the need for this legislation. There are workers in this State who are terrified to organise. While it might be true to say we have a marvellous system of industrial relations machinery, that system is no use to workers who cannot avail of it because their unions cannot access them in their workplaces. Those Deputies who look at the available evidence and suggest that the Government is on the side of the workers, despite what their party leaders might say, are not on the side of the workers, even if they stand with Tesco workers on the picket line. Fianna Fáil is not on the side of workers. I remind the House that there is a simple choice to be made. Deputies need to decide whether they stand with Sinn Féin and the workers, or with the bosses and their Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael lackeys.

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