Preas Railteas/Press Release:

The following statement is released by Comhairle Chúige Laighean (Leinster Executive) Sinn Féin Poblachtach in solidarity with the workers of Greyhound Recycling:

The ghost of William Martin Murphy has resided in Clondalkin for the past 14 weeks. The sight of locked out workers at the gates of the Greyhound Recycling has drawn sickening parallels to the infamous lock out in the year 1913. 101 years on and Scab labour, cuts in wages and extended working hours remain a reality for the workers.

As is common place in modern Ireland, employers make employees feel they are “lucky to have a job” and under this ideology they then impose disgraceful terms and conditions on the employee. This is the cornerstone of the economic warfare being waged on working individual’s right across the 32 counties. Greyhound Recycling has been an excellent example of this, in recent years workers have been forced to work 10 extra hours a week for no extra pay. Untrained casual labour has also been used in attempts to break workers right to union membership.

Agreement has been reached between the employers and the employees, however all will be in vein if guaranteed rates of pay are not introduced for the waste industry. Unions and the Joint labour commission in the Free State have the responsibility to make this a reality. The issue of agency workers simply must be tackled and all workers should have equal rights. The abuse of agency workers is rampant in Ireland and has rightly come to the fore in this dispute.

In its mission statement Greyhound Recycling claims “Greyhound has been built on the back of generations of experience and a simple philosophy that has not changed despite our technological advances” A more accurate synopsis would be to say that the Buckley family has made profit off the backs of its employees for forty years in Ireland. The spirit of William Martin Murphy is alive and well in them, and those of their ilk. Workers must stand together and smash such vile treatment, the courage of the Greyhound workers proves this can be done. They should hold the admiration of workers countrywide.

“The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour” – James Connolly.

E. de Bothún
PRO Comhairle Chúige Laighean

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