Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Workers at Vista Therm, a glass manufacturing company in County Armagh, have been on strike now for 12 weeks. This mainly migrant workforce has been forced into taking this action for their basic demands of trade union recognition and a pay increase. The company refused to engage with the union of the workers choice, which is Unite the Union. It has suspended the shop stewards and dismissed workers during the strike. What is going on here is union busting. Unite reckons it is one of the worst cases of union busting that it has seen in Northern Ireland down through the years.

What is the parent company of Vista Therm? Is it a bunch of free market cowboys from the USA? Is it a bunch of Tory city slickers from the City of London? No. The parent company is Carey Glass from Nenagh in County Tipperary. The funny thing is that the Carey Glass plant in Nenagh is unionised. SIPTU union recognition is in place. What does the Taoiseach say about an Irish company which applies such a blatant double standard - union recognition of the South but no union recognition whatsoever - union busting in fact - in the North? What does he say about such a company, especially when the union busting is in order to better exploit vulnerable migrant workers?

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