22 workers in Iceland Ballyfermot announced strike action last week and were on the pickets today from just before 9am.
Leanne said ‘We’re very unhappy with the way work is right now. Hours have been cut. We’re missing wages and holiday pay. Nobody is getting back to us when we’ve sent emails.’ She suggested it was ‘unhealthy’.
Former store manager Liz agreed and said that it was ‘unfair’ staff had their hours cut after 15 years of service. She named former store owner Naeem Maniar who she said had given staff written assurances that their hours would not have been cut. ‘And yet,’ she said with rain falling from her picket sign, ‘here we are’.
The rain poured on the picketers throughout the morning. But support poured in too: from the Independent Workers Union activists, People Before Profit members, and local residents and workers from the community. Some of the workers like Leanne and Liz were young, but some had with over 15 years in the Ballyfermot shop itself alone.
People brought breakfast rolls, opened doors to spaces where strikers could sit and dry out, and offered free hot tea and coffee. Hundreds of drivers beeped support and took flyers. Some passerbys took time to stand (or dance) with the strikers on the corner of Ballyfermot and Le Fanu Road by the shop.
IWU officials noted that most of the staff live right in the streets around the shop. Local businesses were 100% supportive of the strikers who had previously deferred a balloted strike action on assurances given by the company. These did not hold up. But the support from community, trade union and political groups did, and it was strongly on display behind these workers.
Metron Stores Ltd took over the 27 stores earlier this year and was then placed in examinership by the High Court this month. They have closed a third of 27 stores they were originally given including the Coolock Store which had the first strike picket and occupation. The Talbot Street shop in Dublin, now on its 23rd day of occupation, is a daily reminder of fight the workers have and the ability workers have to resist. Announcements of further closures were read into the Dáil record last week by Bríd Smith. She questioned the Minister for Employment on behalf of the workers last week to speed up the process and give assurances. Up to 17 stores may close in total. Numbers of cases from the IWU to the Workplace Relations Commission continue to mount, as do the numbers of workers in the union.
Bernard Mulvany of People Before Profit said, ‘This is Day 23 of the Occupation in Talbot Street Iceland. The Ballyfermot workers are absolutely justified on going on strike there today- based on the experiences we’ve seen in my own area in Dublin Bay North. I think it’s long overdue.
‘Workers across the Iceland chain should all unionise and organise to strike back against this kind of treatment.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time with these workers these past weeks. I’ve visited nearly every day. Our TDs have been down to visit them in the occupation. These workers are fair-minded hard-working staff who did their utmost. The least they could be given is clear communication and their owed earnings.
‘It shouldn’t have to be said after Cleary’s and Debenhams but we’re saying it again: this is really a disgrace. It’s 2023. We can do things better for workers in Ireland. Even for workers who are in trouble. This is no fault of their own.
This shouldn’t have to happen again and again yet here we are again and again and again. We are better than this. Fair play to these workers for fighting but is this really the best we can do? Ireland’s need for a Left Government for workers is crystal clear. It can’t come soon enough.’
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