Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach recently received a detailed report from Unite the Union on the case of four of its members working for Murphy International Limited at the Rusal Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick in an action the union described as tantamount to union busting. The plant is owned by UC RUSAL, whose majority shareholder is the billionaire Russian oligarch and Putin supporter Oleg Deripaska. While the Irish Government has been very vocal when Deripaska faced sanctions due to Putin’s war on Ukraine, its silence on workers’ rights in this case is deafening. The Government simply replied to the union to tell it that it can take unfair dismissals case. We all know that that process will be long, uncertain and unlikely to mean reinstatement. I am asking the Taoiseach to commit to bringing in legislation that will protect union activists from dismissal where they organise in circumstances where their employers should be bound to recognise them. Will he commit to writing to this Russian oligarch to tell him that he can expect no State contracts paid by the taxpayer as long as he treats workers in this manner?

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