Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has appealed for calm so I will start by calmly saluting the thousands of men and women working for Tesco around the country who stood up to intimidation and a campaign of misinformation and took strike action in pursuance of justice in their workplace. I will calmly ask the Minister of State whether he has ever seen a more outrageous campaign of union busting than was witnessed at Tesco with Project Black - threatening to rip up the contracts of the longest serving workers without consent; banning union officials from the premises, union notices from notice boards and union meetings from company premises; threatening strikers that the Department of Social Protection will be contacted to have family income supplement cut off; stopping union subscriptions at check off; and threatening workers that they would lose either their jobs or their hours should they dare to defy the company and go out on strike. Has there ever been a more outrageous campaign of union busting?

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