Rally for Striking Connolly Shoes workers.

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Tuesday April 27, 2010 16:57 by Paula Geraghty

Workers from Connolly Shoes are in their third week of a strike. Trade Union TV caught up with the strikers at a rally to support the strike organised by People Before Profit, saturday 24th 2010.

Workers at Connolly shoes in Dun Laoghaire were forced to take strike action after the company refused to comply with a Labour Relation Commission (LRC) ruling and subsequently intensified harassment of its workers and sacked two of them.
The two sacked workers have worked for the company for over 30 years each.

The dispute began when the son of the now deceased, long-time owner of the firm, took over the running of the company and sought to impose drastic cuts in pay and conditions on the workforce, while refusing to consult with them or talk to their trade union, Mandate.

The new owner imposed a 10% pay cut, reduced workers to a three day week, removed parking rights in the shops car-park, and simultaneously sought to increase significantly the employees workload.

While the workers accepted the inevitability of cutbacks and changes, they asked for some reasonable consultation on how these could be implemented, which the Companys owner point blank refused.

The Company has since refused to pay monies owed to the employees as adjudicated by the LRC and in a clearly vengeful manner imposed further changes to conditions and subsequently sacked two of its longest-standing employees.

The Company continues to refuse any discussions with the workers trade union and has recently refused an offer of mediation from the LRC.

Cllr Boyd Barrett will attempt to raise the issue of the Connollys Shoes dispute at tonights meeting of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council and seek the Councils support for the striking workers.

He also called for a boycott of all Connolly Shoe stores until the dispute is resolved in a fair way and the sacked workers have been re-instated.

Caption: Video Id: kUeKu8ALMZY Type: Youtube Video
Retail workers rally in Dun Laoghaire