Union officials scab on BATU strike

[Nico]

Industrial News - South

Union officials scab on BATU strike

Susan Fitzgerald, striking BATU staff member

* Reinstate sacked organisers


* Build a fighting union!
It's bad enough for strikers to see anyone crossing their picket line but when the scabs are full time trade union officials, including a general secretary, it makes for a particularly disgusting spectacle.

Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU) General Secretary Paddy O’Shaughnessy, Assistant General Secretary Brendan O’Sullivan and organisers Andy Smith and Greg Macken have continually passed our pickets. Not only are they passing pickets but they are also scabbing by carrying out the work of striking office staff. Deputy General Secretary Denis Farrell has refused to pass our picket line.

There are six of us on strike and we are members of Unite / ATGWU. We began official industrial action against our employer BATU on 9 May. We did not take the decision to engage in industrial action lightly, but the Ryanair like actions of the General Secretary and others has left us with no choice.

On May Day, the Assistant General Secretary Brendan O’Sullivan himself typed up the forced redundancy notices that were then signed by Paddy O’Shaughnessy and issued that day to union organisers Tom Fitzgerald and Robert Kelly. No criteria was given as to why Tom and Rob had been selected for redundancy. Tom Fitzgerald who has eight years service with the union has been replaced by Greg Macken who has eleven months service, this “organiser” is now answering the phones and doing the typing.

Office staff were threatened with an imposed, non negotiable pay cut of 10% along with detrimental changes to conditions of employment. When we requested union representation we were informed that a staff association was in place in BATU and that there would be no discussions with our union.

The so called staff rep, Andy Smith, casually informed office staff that he had been elected to represent us. This was the first we heard about the BATU staff association. We refused his representation and continued to press for our union to be recognised. We were informed by the General Secretary that our pay would be docked for attending union meetings.

After Tom and Rob were served the compulsory redundancy notice and were barred from the building, the locks and alarm codes were changed and a private security guard was hired to wander the building. When I attended for work on 2 May I was told by the General Secretary that I was not to turn on or touch my computer, he then said I should go home, “have a day off”, which I refused to do. My desk-side locker, which contained not only personal items but members private details, had been smashed open and the contents rifled through. Other office staff were locked out of the union’s membership system, effectively preventing them from doing any work. When the notice of redundancy was served on Robert Kelly, he was given 15 minutes to leave the building. Both he and Tom were escorted from the building by the scabs now doing their work.

Before placing pickets on the building the first thing we did was issue a leaflet to members of BATU explaining that we are in dispute with the leadership of the union, not with them. We have had hundreds of members pledging support for our dispute, and organising work place collections.

Members have also visited the picket line every single day to show support for us but also to register their disgust at those passing pickets. The solidarity and instinctive defence of basic trade union principles by the members of BATU stands in stark contrast to those paid officials who claim to represent them.

Tommy Fitzgerald sacked BATU full time organiser spoke to Stephen Boyd of the Socialist:
“The background to our dispute lies in the serious financial problems facing BATU which has a deficit of approximately €300,000 per quarter. The key to solving the financial problems of BATU lies in recruiting and organising more workers in the construction industry.


“Instead the General Secretary Paddy O’Shaughnessy decided to sack Robert Kelly and myself and to reduce the wages of the office staff by 10%. A pay cut of 10% to Paddy O’Shaughnessy who earns €117,000 a year isn’t much, but it is a lot to our office workers especially with the increasing cost of living.


“How the decision to sack Robert and myself was reached raises all sorts of questions about the lack of democracy in BATU. A new regional organiser was appointed in January of this year and he is one of the scabs now crossing our picket line. Incredibly two weeks after his appointment it was announced that there was a financial crisis! Then at a meeting of the NEC the general secretary proposed a motion to give himself carte blanche powers to sack people and make any cost cutting measures he wanted. Leading officials voted on this motion at the NEC despite this being against the unions rules.


“Our industrial action has ignited a wave of opposition from rank and file members of BATU to the current leadership of the union. Hundreds of members have attended meetings and protests in support of our fight for reinstatement. At the meetings there have been calls for the general secretary to resign and many people have raised the need for democratic accountability in how BATU is run. A rank and file group called BATU Concerned Members Action Group has been established to campaign for change in the union.


“Following on from a meeting of a few hundred BATU members three of the union’s trustees took action and froze the union’s assets and finances. Subsequently Paddy O’Shaughnessy unsuccessfully tried to replace the trustees and force the bank to release funds.


“The Dublin Council of Trades Unions unanimously passed a motion proposed by UNITE and seconded by SIPTU supporting our strike. We also received important pledges of support and money from unions at the trades council.


“There is a lot of anger amongst the ranks of BATU about the direction the union has taken and in its decline. Our members in many workplaces including Pierce, Bowens and Barbarry have been phoning me for help and advice because they have refused to be represented by the scabs still working in head office.


“BATU’s leading officials have serious questions to answer. Why is it that between 2002 and 2005 when the number of people working in the construction industry increased by 37% did the membership of BATU fall by 25%? BATU should be out there in a major recruitment drive. We should be engaging in battles defending the members and challenging the employers in the construction industry who are getting away with major attacks. The CIF want a 12 month pay freeze and a 33% wage cut for young people starting off. And what is the answer of the leading officials in BATU – sack two of their organisers and cut their office staff’s pay.


“They tried to buy us off with a wad of cash but we aren’t going anywhere and with the support of the members behind us we can win reinstatement and take a big step towards turning BATU into a democratic fighting union.”

[Nico]

9 months on strike
Suspend BATU
Expel O’Shaughnessy
ICTU - support the strikers not the scabs Susan Fitzgerald, BATU striker
THE ENDING of a second ICTU mediation process coincided with the start of our ninth month on strike against our employer, the Building and Allied Trades’ Union (BATU).
With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that BATU General Secretary, Paddy O’Shaughnessy and his fellow scabs never had any intention of reaching a settlement. They were simply going through the motions of co-operation with the process in order to forestall moves to suspend or expel BATU from Congress.
We had made clear all along that the strike was about getting all six strikers back to work with our union rights guaranteed. We were unhappy that the deal proposed by Congress in effect accepted the decision of BATU to sack workers for going on strike.
Despite this, and despite our reservations about the details of the package that was eventually recommended by Congress, we participated fully in the process and ultimately indicated that we would accept what was on offer.
We did so fully aware that BATU had insisted on strings to the package that were deliberately designed to give them an excuse to scupper the deal. These concerned the return of items of BATU property, namely the union banner, some computers and a number of files, which had been allegedly removed from the building during the occupation of BATU head office. BATU insisted that this property be returned as a condition of any settlement and, unfortunately, this was made part of the final recommended deal. The strikers made clear during the negotiations that it was not in our gift to return any of the goods that, allegedly, had been removed from the building. We could not do so because we did not remove this material and none of it was or is in our possession.
What has been alleged is not that the strikers removed this material but that it was taken by BATU members who occupied the building at one point during the strike. The strikers were not involved in this occupation, either in its planning or its implementation. It was carried out by BATU members who have their own grievances about the way that the General Secretary and some other senior officers have run the union.
The dispute between BATU members and the current leadership of their union and the strike by Unite members who are employees of BATU are two quite separate issues. To decide that the resolution of one becomes a pre-condition for resolving the other is effectively to ensure that there can be no resolution of the strike. BATU was well aware of this when they pressed Congress to add this condition to the proposed deal.
This brings us back to where we were before the mediation process began. The current BATU leadership has besmirched the fighting traditions laid down by BATU members and has brought disgrace on the entire trade union movement. Prior to the talks process we issued a call for Paddy O'Shaughnessey to be removed from the ICTU Executive, and for BATU, until such times as it repudiates his actions, to be suspended from ICTU membership. We now reiterate this call as the only way forward.
Our grounds for making this call are as before:

That Paddy O'Shaughnessey refused BATU staff proper trade union rights and recognition
That he, and three fellow scabs, have crossed an official picket line on a daily basis since the start of this dispute and once inside the building are carrying out the work of strikers.
That he has brought in scab labour to do the work of striking Unite members.
That he has sacked four trade union members for taking part in lawful and official strike action.
That he physically assaulted a female striker. This act alone is grounds for Paddy O'Shaughnessy's removal – otherwise the trade union movement could, as with other institutions in this state, stand accused of brushing such instances of physical abuse under the carpet.
We thank all those trade unions and trade union members who have given us the support that has kept us going this far and ask that you continue with this support. Above all we ask all trade unions to pass motions backing our call for the immediate removal of Paddy O'Shaughnessey from the ICTU Executive and for the suspension of BATU from Congress membership until such times as the BATU Executive disassociates itself from the disgraceful anti-trade union actions of its General Secretary and others.

[Coggeh]

An excellent example of just how far the union leadership in Batu will go to preserve their comfy pay checks , and their undemocratic positions of power as to physically attack a striker.

Cheers for the post

[Nico]

It's an absoute disgrace the way these workers are been treated at the hands of there BATU employers. These men of BATU are supposed to be there to protect workers rights instead they continue to cross the picket line and continue to do the work of the strikers. They are using every dirty trick in the book to break the strikers they are nothing more than lowlife scabs. They should hang there heads in shame.

I have to give credit to Denis Farell of BATU who refuses to pass the picket. Denis was my union rep and is a sound man who is always there for the workers.