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The Joe Horgan Column
By Joe Horgan
Some have been calling it Ireland’s Wapping, in that it may mark a truly
pivotal moment in shaping the future nature of this country. Whatever happens
in the coming weeks, it seems unlikely that the Irish Ferries dispute will
merely pass by as just another industrial disagreement. For anyone who travels
across the Irish Sea it is important too that the full story be known and
that a situation that has even forced Bertie Ahern to state how much he
deplores the actions of Irish Ferries be revealed.
Irish Ferries’ stated position of replacing Irish workers with those
from eastern Europe because it can pay them less took another twist recently
when one of its ferries saw staff locking themselves into rooms as the boat
was suddenly flooded by ‘hired’ security men. Feeling threatened by the
sudden and unannounced appearance of these security men, “not the kind of
men you’d like to bump into on a dark night,” one employee said, the staff
were reduced to barricading themselves in and therefore stranding the boat
in dock. The company stated that the security was necessary as it wanted
to protect its property and had had requests from some staff with regards
to safety. The appearance of the bulky, shaven-headed security personnel
was not meant to be threatening. You can decide for yourself if you would
find such an action at your place of work threatening. If nothing else it
signalled the company’s determination to aggressively enforce its policies.
Interestingly enough, at the same time as this dispute began to escalate
there were again reports about the exploitation of migrant workers on building
sites around Ireland. Polish workers, for instance, were discovered to be
receiving far less than their Irish counterparts on the same site doing
the same job. For many of those who worked on the building sites of England
the idea of being ripped off and mistreated by fellow Irish builders will
be nothing new. It is hardly surprising that they are now doing it to another
group of vulnerable workers.
Of course the belief in Ireland that Fianna Fáil and the big shots in
construction are as close as can be is not going to be new to many people.
The government’s response to all of this has been at best insipid. Bertie
Ahern has criticised Irish Ferries’ actions but has declared he is unable
to intervene. The government, and by proxy the Irish State, has said that
it has no power to prevent this aggressive abuse of Irish workers. Still,
a Republic that has handed itself so fully over to the forces of commerce
and given those forces primacy over everything else was almost bound to
find itself in a position such as this sooner or later. Everything is following
the one pattern, a pattern that is a clear result of the prevailing political
orthodoxy.
The closing down of Donegal’s textile industry in order to place those
jobs in low wage countries where pay is less and working conditions worse
is merely a mirror image of what Irish Ferries is doing except it is not
doing it in Morocco but on the Irish Sea. A long time ago those who were
building this new Ireland decided it could be an ethically free zone as
that was what went hand in hand with the dreams of free trade. After all,
this a country where the Tánaiste Mary Harney openly declared that we should
support America’s actions in Iraq, not because we believed their strange
claims about freedom, democracy and war meaning peace but because they gave
us a lot of money. There are no secrets there.
Another aspect of this new country is that we are increasingly told that
we are, above all, consumers. Indeed it often seems that we are only citizens
when we are being told about those who are not citizens. Now some people
might see their status as consumers as vitally important, as a true measure
of freedom. Others might say that it is something of a reduction for us
as a people to have shopping take primacy over citizenship. Take your pick.
But if we are consumers now and if, as Mary Harney once advised us, shopping
around is how we exercise our rights then let all those who do cross the
Irish Sea take note of their choices as consumers. If you believe in an
Ireland shaped by the actions of companies like Irish Ferries, if you believe
the replacing of Irish workers by those who will be paid less and treated
worse is right then carry on. If you do not then remember when you are crossing
the Irish Sea these days that the choice as a consumer is yours.
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