Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hold the name of my county, Tipperary, in great esteem and I take great exception to it being besmirched. I wish to highlight the plight of former Tipperary Water workers who were forcibly made redundant after joining SIPTU to improve their working conditions and reverse a unilateral 8% reduction in their wages in the past three years despite high turnovers. The workers, whose employment was terminated by management on 27 August, began a peaceful protest yesterday outside Gleeson Group's warehouse in Cherry Orchard Industrial Estate, Ballyfermot, in protest at the group's unfair treatment of them. They claim that they were targeted because of their membership of a trade union and were replaced by agency staff. They were dismissed on the grounds that they were not sufficiently skilled and that the company was losing money. SIPTU organiser Mr. Graham Macken told me today that the majority of workers at the warehouse were SIPTU members and that the Gleeson Group has so far-----