Siptu general president Jack O’Connor has asked members of the trade union to join a rally this weekend in support of workers at Green Isle Foods who are on hunger strike as part of a dispute with management over the dismissal of three members of staff.
Former Offaly All-Ireland footballer John Guinan this week joined shop steward Jim Wyse on hunger strike outside the company’s plant in Naas, Co Kildare.
Mr Wyse has been on hunger strike for a week, and the men will be joined by another worker next week, Siptu said.
Likening the dispute to the hunger strike by a “forgotten hero” of the 1913 Lockout, Mr O’Connor said the dispute was over "the dismissal of three TEEU members through an internal disciplinary procedure that denied them any representation by their union”.
A letter by Mr O'Connor, who is also president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, was published in Siptu's weekly e-bulletin Liberty today.
The newsletter goes to 20,000 Siptu members and is also posted on the union’s website.
Mr O’Connor writes: “On November 1st, 1913, IT&GWU branch secretary James Byrne became the first trade unionist to die on hunger strike in twentieth century Ireland.
“On February 17th, James Wyse of the TEEU became the first Irish trade unionist to go on hunger strike during the course of an industrial dispute in the twenty-first century.
“The issue that led both men to take this momentous decision was their belief that workers have a right to be members of a trade union and to be represented by that trade union in their workplace.
“A second Green Isle Foods worker, John Guinan, who was a member of the Offaly team that won the Sam Maguire in 1982, joined James Wyse on hunger strike outside the Green Isle Foods plant in Naas last Wednesday, February 24th. Another colleague will join the hunger strike next Wednesday, March 3rd, if it is not resolved,” Mr O’Connor said.
He invites members to take part in a rally in support of the Green Isle Foods workers in Naas this Saturday, organised by the Kildare Council of Trade Unions. The rally will be followed by a march to the company’s plant.
The union leader notes the men have been out for six months, and said it is only since Mr Wyse began his hunger strike that the company entered talks on a resolution to the dispute.
"The dispute is over the dismissal of three TEEU members through an internal disciplinary procedure that denied them any representation by their union. Eventually the union referred the case to the Labour Court, which found the men had indeed been unfairly dismissed and should be fully reinstated or paid €160,000 in compensation. The company said it did not recognise unions and the Labour Court was not an appropriate forum to deal with the issue.”
Mr O’Connor said the men were “defending a basic civil liberty to be represented in their workplace by a trade union if they so wish”.
He also asked members to sign the TEEU’s online petition in support of the strikers.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) has said the sacking of the three workers was linked directly to an incident in which a private management file on cutbacks was sent in error to an employee, who shared the material with colleagues.
But in its first extensive public comments on the case yesterday, Green Isle Foods claimed the dismissals related to breaches of its IT and copyright policies.
Finance director of the company JJ Ryan said that following an external examination of its IT systems arising from an incident over confidential data, the company discovered that 13 engineers had received multiple e-mails from a common external source containing extreme adult material.
The general secretary–designate of the TEEU, Eamonn Devoy, said the cases were absolutely linked and the same people were involved in both incidents.
He said the material in the e-mails referred to by the company was of the type that could be found in a normal situation in any office or factory.