2013 is the anniversary of the great lock out when thousands of union members fought the vile employer William Martin Murphy. It will be commemorated this year against a background of economic crisis and new questions about the role of unions today.

One hundred years ago, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union was led by two revolutionary socialists, James Connolly and Jim Larkin. Their aim was the destruction of capitalism and they encouraged workers to use the most militant tactics to advance their day to day aims.

Connolly summed up their attitudes as follows:

Following on from major struggles by miners in Spain Italian workers have barricaded themselves into the Carbosulcis mine in Sicily until the government promises to address their concerns about the future of the mine.

"I think anyone would protest like us, anyone who is losing their job is prepared to do anything," one miner said. Over 100 miners have blocked the mine. In 1995 workers at the same pit occupied for 11 days or more.

The workers want to switch from mining to carbon capture which would mean retaining their jobs.

Update to the article below: Up to 3000 construction workers from sites across the CBD descended on the Grocon/Myer construction site on Tuesday morning. Police armed with batons, capsicum spray, shields and horses tried to break the picket, but the determined resistance of hundreds of unionists succeeded in holding the line. The struggle is set to continue in the coming days.

Picket lines will be staffed this week from 5am to 4pm. All union supporters welcome to come and show solidarity. Touch one, touch all!

At first sight the Bord Na Mona dispute looks like a normal industrial relations conflict. 1,500 union members have taken strike action because their company is refusing to pay out awards they are entitled to.

The prospect of a Britain closed by a public sector general strike took a giant step forwards last week. Up to 3 million workers could strike over pensions in November after union leaders announced raft of new ballots.

The biggest public sector union, Unison, will ballot all of its 1.1 million public sector workers. The union’s general secretary Dave Prentis formally announced the ballot at the TUC conference in London on Wednesday of last week.

The Unite and GMB unions announced strike ballots too.And the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) also gave notice of a national dispute.

On 7 July, the High Court ruled that Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) agreed by Joint Labour Committes (JLCs) are ‘unconstitutional’. Multi-millionaire fast food chains, notorious for low wages, brought the case.

This decision favours the ‘property rights’ of an elite few over the rights of low-paid workers to decent living standards.
Trade union Mandate’s John Douglas said:

“This is devastating for 200,000 workers.Following increases in gas prices, mortgages and food prices, thousands will be driven over the edge. It won’t create a single extra job.”

Thousands of PCS public sector workers struck today to defend pensions ,their jobs and pay. In the North 3,000 workers took part in the action, Socialist Worker reports from the picket lines.

...and you can join the fight!

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are preparing to go into battle against the UK's Tory government.

When the most serious crisis in the history of Irish capitalism struck in September 2008, the leadership of all of the unions in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) made a collective decision not to fight the cutbacks that ensued.
They refused to put up any serious fight against the 'pension levy'. They failed to oppose pay cuts. Then, with the Croke Park 'deal', they offered the government the biggest sell-out of members' conditions ever contemplated in exchange for a promise of no further pay-cuts.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation union Annual Conference took place in Sligo on April 25th-27th.