Workers at Marine Terminals Ltd (MTL), the main container operator at Dublin Port, are on strike over management attempts to impose compulsory redundancies and cuts in pay and conditions on the workforce.The dispute began when the company, owned by the UK based Peel Group, implemented forced redundancies, reduced wages and worsened working conditions.
In May MTL cut 19 jobs. The company then wrote to the remaining workforce threatening to sack them if they did not accept new wages and conditions.
The 13 workers who have been made compulsorily redundant in May got an average severance payment of €37,000, despite claims from MTL of payments of over €75,000.
MTL is owned by The Mersey Docks & Harbour Co, now Peel Ports Group, and had enough money to recently complete a €25million refit operation in Dublin Port.
The dockers are continuing their pickets despite MTL getting an injunction “to prevent striking dock workers disrupting the smooth operation of the Port of Dublin."
A number of large protests have taken place in support of the dockers.
For more on this see: http://www.mtldockers.com
