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BALLYFERMOT will be having their Fight the  Household Charge Meeting on Monday 23rd of January @ 8pm in the United Football Club. Blackditch Rd.

INCHICORE will be having their Fight the  Household Charge Meeting on Tuesday 24th of January @ 8pm in the Annex at the Oblates in chicore.

DRIMNAGH will be having their Fight the  Household Charge Meeting on Friday 27th of January @ 8pm Bosco Youth Club, Davitt Road

CHAPELIZOD will be having their Fight the  Household Charge Meeting on Wednesday 1st of February @ 8pm in the Village Inn

‘The Greyhound company have no right to demand €100 up front from people. They only want this money so that they can build up their financial reserves at our expense.

‘The manner in which DublinCity Council have withdrawn from waste collection represents a huge historical set back.

‘Waste collection has been seen as a public service since the Victorian era – -it should not be regarded as an opportunity to make profit.

There are three aspects of this arrangement which are deeply disturbing:

1.  Information on the exact financial arrangement between Dublin City Council and Greyhound are being withheld from elected representatives. Under the guise of ‘commercial sensitivity’ an insidious form of censorship has been imposed. But the people ofDublinhave every right to scrutinise arrangements made with private companies. What right do unelected city managers have to do deals without public transparency’.
2. Dublin City Council has given Greyhound the right to pursue people who owe the council money for waste charges. No information has been provided on how much money will go back to the council or what cut Greyhound will get. Instead a private company has been given the right to harass people who are already stressed out by huge bills.
3. The workers of Dublin City Council – who have given loyal service over the years have been treated in a disgraceful manner. They have been given no guarantees about their earnings – but have been told to turn up each morning like ‘spailpin fanaigh’ to wait outside the city council for work. This is no way to treat workers in the 21^st century.

I call on people to protest against this attack on public services and to take the example of the global Occupy movement and resist.

Minister Quinn last week order a review on the impact of  cuts to DEIS schools after reports from his own inspectorate and from the Education Research Centre detailed the real positive  impact DEIS is having on the attainment levels of pupils in these schools.

The cuts – which involve changes to the pupil-teacher ratio, the withdrawal of extra resources such as Support Teachers and changes to the way in which Learning Support and Language Support services are allocated – could result in all DEIS schools losing at least 1 – 2 frontline teachers, with some losing up to 8 teachers over the next three years.

Minister Quinn must now, having admitted his terrible mistake, ensure there is  a full and immediate reversal of all DEIS cuts. However, Minister Quinn has said that if he is to reverse anything he will have to make cuts elsewhere in education. This is not good enough and there are alternatives to cutting vital budgets in areas such as Education. A small increase in tax on the wealth in this country would cover the needs of the Education sector.

Councillor Brid Smith said “Parents, teachers and children have to keep up their campaign and keep the pressure on Minister Quinn and this FG/ Labour government because this backtracking in recent weeks regarding the cuts to disability and cuts on Education has shown people power can force the government’s hand. There should be no question of any other cuts in Education. We have to insist that this government puts our children and our future first and not the dictats of the Troika. Therefore I would urge all parents, teachers and  pupils to join this protest and show your support”.

The greed of capitalism for profit creates bubbles, and when those bubbles burst it is the workers who suffer. As retail is the bubble predicted to burst to 2012, staff in La Senza have set the trend for other retail workers to fight back and to win their rights.

La Senza workers were inspired by the sit-inCorkby Vita Cortex. These occupations are the beginning of what may be many worker occupations.

La Senza representative Tara Keane said “We took a moral stand not just for ourselves but for all frontline workers in the retail sector.” The success of these workers will be important for many other workers in retail and other sectors.

Workers united will never be defeated, and this inspiration from La Senza and Vita Cortex show the way for all workers in 2012.

Workers at La Senza lingerie shop in Liffey Valley shopping Centre, who were told on Monday evening of the closure of all its operations in Ireland, have occupied this outlet, with La Senza workers from throughout Dublin joining them to assist the sit-in.

La Senza in Liffey Valley alone took in over a quarter of a million euro during the Christmas period, but staff have been left without wages, including overtime payments for working during this period. The People Before Profit Alliance applauds these workers in their stance and calls on the administrators of La Senza, KPMG, to immediately pay the workers all that is owed to them in full, as well full redundancy.

Responding to the occupation by workers of the La Senza lingerie outlet in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, People Before Profit / United Left Alliance Councillor Brid Smith said: “I strongly support the decision by the staff to occupy the Liffey Valley retail outlet. The treatment of these workers by the company and administrators is inexcusable and shameful. Like Vita Cortex workers in Cork, here is another situation where workers rights are trampled on and they are treated with utter contempt. We need legislation enacted to protect and prioritise the rights of workers and send a clear signal to employers that such behaviour towards workers will not be tolerated.”

People Before Profit/ United Left Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett submitted a request to hold an urgent Topical issue debate on the plight of the La Senza workers to the Ceann Comhairle this morning. Given the absolutely disgraceful treatment of the La Senza workers and their desperate current plight, Minister Bruton should also rapidly bring forward legal protections for workers in this kind of situation – to ensure that the rights and entitlements of the workforce are prioritised in the case of sudden closure or liquidation.

Thanks to Paula Geraghty for photos and video

Some of the bin workers who have spent the best part of their working lives collecting our rubbish throughout the city.
Dublin City Management are pushing ahead with the privatisation of the service and these workers joined councillors and local people in a protest outside the City Council meeting at the beginning of November.

Cllr Brid Smith spoke at the protest and told the gathering “It was inevitable that the introduction of bin charges back in 2001 would lead to the privatisation of the service. Once an essential service is transformed into a commodity for profit making it is subject to fierce competition from the market and the public provider comes under tremendous pressure in maintaining the service. This is not rocket science. It is plainly obvious and those that really bear the brunt are the workers in the service and the average citizens who depend on the public service. But this issue also highlights how democracy has been stripped from local councillors. After three times voting not to privatise the service, the elected councillors are told by an unelected Manager, that their vote doesnt matter and that the privatisation of the service will happen. That is why I have a motion before the council calling on the Government to repeal Section 4 of the Waste Management Act brought in by Fianna Fail, that gives the manager executive powers and undermines local democracy.”

 

The protesters agreed to return to the city council meeting that will decide on the next budget and voice their objection there to a budget that does not contain a provision for the bin collection service.

Watch this space and join in the budget protests at City Hall 28 November at 6pm

thanks to Paula Geraghty for Photos

Refuse collection and waste management was established in Dublin in late 1800′s to stop the spread of diseases like cholera. Since then it has been a publicly run service. But now Dublin City Council are withdrawing from this service on December 5th.

Under Section 4 of the Waste Management Act 2001, the city manager can over-rule elected councillors on matters to do with waste. He has decided to invoke these powers and withdraw a public bin services from the people of Dublin. His aim is to hand it over to private contractors who will eventually bring in even higher charges.

In South Dublin, County Council, two private contractors Thorntons and Greyhound are already charging people €50 and €60 annual fee and also charging by weight on each lift. This increases the overall cost of the service and waivers will be entirely removed from next April.

Once the system is privatised, the waiver system is gone. Waivers only exist in three councils in the country at the moment – and one of them is Dublin City Council.

On three occasions, Dublin City councillors have voted to reject the manager’s decision to privatise the service and three times they have been told

by the manager that his decision stands regardless.

In late September management wrote to the 150 approx bin collection workers and informed them that their jobs in Waste Management would be gone after December 5th. They were given an option to choose to redeploy to other departments but not given an option of redundancy or to do other work in Waste Management. Many of these workers have given a life time of labour in collecting our rubbish and are now treated in this demeaning way. They are furious, are offended and feel powerless.

On Monday Nov 7that the Dublin City Council meeting the People Before Profit Alliance will propose a motion to repeal the anti-democratic legislation brought in by the Fianna Fail Government in 2001.

But we need to show the political establishment that we are opposed to privatization of services and want to keep our bin collection service in public hands.

Support the bin workers and defend our public services – make your voice heard against this undemocratic system and against the disgraceful disregard of the bin collection workers.

DUBLIN_Bins

Refuse collection and waste management was established in Dublin in late 1800′s to stop spread of diseases like cholera. Since then it has been a publicly run service. But now Dublin City Council are withdrawing this service from December 5th.

Under Section 4 of the Waste Management Act 2001, the city manager can over rule elected councillors on matters to do with waste.
He has decided to invoke these powers and withdraw a public bin services from the people of Dublin. His aim is to hand it over to private contractors who will eventually being in even higher charges.

In South Dublin Council, one private contractor, Thornton’s, is charging people €60 extra just to enter their service. They are also increasing the cost of each lift. Once the system is privatised, the waiver system for the poorest section of the population will be removed. Waivers only exist in three councils in the country at the moment – and one of them is Dublin City Council.
When the poor cannot afford to pay for waste collection, illegal dumping will increasing, causing a new health hazard.

On three occasions, Dublin City councillors have voted to reject the manager’s decision and three times they have been told by management that he is going ahead regardless.

In late September management wrote to the 150 approx bin collection workers and informed them that they would not be working in this department after 5 Dec. They were given an option to choose which dept to redeploy to. Many of these workers have given a life time of labour in collecting our rubbish and are now treated in this demeaning way. They are furious, are offended and feel powerless

At the Monday meeting on November 7th of Dublin City Council, Cllr Brid Smith of the People Before Profit Alliance will move the following resolution:
‘In light of the clear anti democratic Executive function afforded to management to privatise the bin collection service, despite three majority votes of the elected members to maintain the service in public hands, this Council calls on the current Government to repeal Section 4 of the Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2001 which provides that the making of a waste management plan will become an executive (management) function, a change from the Waste Management Act 1996, where the power was a reserved (elected member) function.’

Come to the protest outside the make your voice heard against a totally undemocratic system of management that is depriving us of a vital public service.

Issued by People Before Profit, Councillor Brid Smith 0879090166