SIPTU organises "Shop North" protest

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Flamed Diving

ceret

Didn't they do a "Shop North" day already recently? They all took a day off and headed to Newry...

woodseb

can we close the border once they all are over?

ntlbell

so they're going to give their future wages to the counter parts in the uk

to teach the government a lesson.

so on the next budget if they take another 5-10% from they'll have nothing to moan about right?

The intelligence levels from both PS and union's is extremley embarrassing.

zootroid

Ridiculous response from SIPTU, but unfortunately, I'm not the least bit surprised.

CityCentreMan

How difficult is it for these guys to understand that when they do something like this it does'nt hurt Brian Lenihan or the Government, it hurts our economy including all Irish people (whether Public or Private Sector and whether Employed or Unemployed).

Unfortunately, it is obvious that the obvious is not so obvious to an awful lot of really really stupid people.

Flex

Hopefully the same people who want to take part in this (I cant think up a suitable word to describe it at the moment) shop north trip will take this another step forward and "really get back at Ireland!" by quitting their jobs. After all, how could they ever be replaced??? The country would collapse and that would teach us that "JUST BECAUSE AN EMPLOYER IS FACING BANKRUPTCY IS NO EXCUSE FOR A 5% PAYCUT THAT PUTS EVERYONE ON THE BREADLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

ei.sdraob

"you hurt us we will hurt you"

the only ones they are hurting is themselves


so if they are shopping up north
then theres less tax income here
that means less money for welfare and ..... the public service

hmm :pac:

Eliot Rosewater

CityCentreMan wrote: »

How difficult is it for these guys to understand that when they do something like this it does'nt hurt Brian Lenihan or the Government, it hurts our economy including all Irish people.

Were talking about a Trade Union here. They dont give two ****s about our economy.

As regards the story: the true colors of some of these ironic Trade unionists are now showing. Greed is all they are at. The Government should deduct the money in these receipts from the wages of the service. See how they like that.

Kashkai

I'm a public sector worker and I and a lot of my colleagues think the public service union bs is laughable at best and disgusting at worst. They were all too keen to stay in bed with Bertie during the "partnership" years when they got us low paid public servants a whole 1% a year pay rise (while inflation was running at 4% - 5% :rolleyes:) which meant shag all to me but to those public servants on €70k+, it was a nice earner. AND the bearded ones awarded themselves payrises so now they earn €150k a year so its very hard to take these a$$holes seriously when they try to get us cannon fodder out on the streets to fight their fight.

I have a wife, 5 kids and a huge mortgage to pay but I know I'm lucky that I can still count on my €45k a year unlike a lot of people in the private sector. So I for one (and many others in the public service to be fair) will ignore the bearded ones in the unions and will continue to do our jobs that we know we are lucky to have. The ironic thing is that it is those bigwigs in the public service (i.e. the ones earning €70k - €250k+) who are most angry about the pay cut. I guess they just greedy during the so called boom years and don't like the cold hard light of a new day.

whatnext

I never liked the Unions or the idea of unions but I never in my wildest dreams thought they were this stupid.

After all if they were this thick in their understanding of basic economics they would never be capable of reaching an age of growing a beard. Darwins most basic laws would have wiped them out.

For this reason alone I am assuming this is a wind up:rolleyes:

pah

As a PS worker not represented by SIPTU I have to say... what a fantastic ridiculous, stupid load of bollox.

Public Sector workers take your pay cut on the chin accept that it was neccessary, do something about the muppets who got us here in the first place but stop trying to drag the rest of the country down.

If someone wants to go north or UK (as I will be doing soon for a car) to get a better deal, fair enough.

To organise buses to travel north just to make a point with an actual slogan of you hurt us - we will hurt you is a frakking joke. Anyway I thought you all had no money to spend?

omahaid

I think that it is now obvious that the trade unions would prefer 1 private sector job loss to save 150 public sector workers 5% of their salary :eek:

nesf

Hmm, does SIPTU represent anyone linked to the retail sector (i.e. retail workers/haulage/wholesale/whatever)?

Dr Galen

i really have no idea what to say about this. I'm shocked and I really really hope that I'm going to wake up in the shower in a few minutes and realise it was all a bad dream Dallas style.

For Gods sake how can any right minded person think this will achieve anything other than to piss more people off who already are pissed at the PS. I've often defended the PS against unfounded and ranty attacks but this is indefensible.

Eliot Rosewater

omahaid wrote: »

I think that it is now obvious that the trade unions would prefer 150 private sector job losses to save 1 public sector worker trade unionist 5% of their salary

Fixed your post.

Dirk Gently

I can only hope that this John McCarrick is a local numb skull who will be quickly slapped into line by the union leadership. I have no beef with anyone taking Mary Harneys advice to "shop around". IMO it's the governments job to help improve competitiveness and they wasted a big opportunity when they refused to cut the VAT rates to at least 17.5% to level the VAT rates in the new year. People have to do what they have to do to afford their goods and if that means going north then so be it.

Having said that, to actively encourage workers to cross the border (workers who might previously have opted to shop locally) at the expense of minimum wage shop assistants in Sligo is a step too far. The only people it will hurt are low paid shop workers in sligo, the sort who are likely not to have union membership. The government will love it, a great PR coup for them.

Is there any other source reporting this story besides a local sligo newspaper? Any confirmation from SIPTU? I would be surprised if it was a sanctioned move tbh.

rumour

Oh my ******* God. We have to borrow money for them to do it???

Insane...fubar.

whatnext

I think its time for Redundancies in SIPTU :mad:

I would like to encourage every public sector member to stop employing them, boycot them, or at least stop handing over a fixed percentage of your wages to them

What a disgrace. I think this is a step to far by the beards.

And I cant see many of their members standing up for this, and if they do we're all ruined:(:(:(

Kashkai

With all the talk of blaming bankers, developers, politicians etc for the bust, why is there no mention of the unions who helped suck this country dry with excessive wage demands to keep up with inflation when they should have been trying to moderate the inflation in the first place (not to mention demanding action to cool the housing market so their members could afford a house close to their jobs instead of 50-60 miles away).

Unions had their place but are irrelevant and impotent in the ruins of the celtic tiger.

bamboozle

whatnext wrote: »

I think its time for Redundancies in SIPTU :mad:

I would like to encourage every public sector member to stop employing them, boycot them, or at least stop handing over a fixed percentage of your wages to them

What a disgrace. I think this is a step to far by the beards.

And I cant see many of their members standing up for this, and if they do we're all ruined:(:(:(

what a bunch of idiots.....

public servants, if you are unhappy with the pay cuts announced in the budget...QUIT

ei.sdraob

nesf wrote: »

Hmm, does SIPTU represent anyone linked to the retail sector (i.e. retail workers/haulage/wholesale/whatever)?

SIPTU is a general union which organises across the public and private sectors in Ireland and has large numbers (200,000) of members working in construction, health, education, transport and manufacturing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Services,_Industrial,_Professional_&_Technical_Union


jesus christ anyone in the private sector (Especially retail) who is a member of SIPTU should ****ing tell them where to shove their ****

they are hurting themselves

this is gone beyond ridiculous now

pah

bamboozle wrote: »

what a bunch of idiots.....

public servants, if you are unhappy with the pay cuts announced in the budget...QUIT

A bit of a simplistec opinion there. I wasn't happy with the paycuts. I doubt you'll find anyone in the PS who was!

I do however see the neccessity and I understand that it needed to be done. I'm still not happy, but I'll keep my job thanks.

CityCentreMan

SIPTU : Sligo Branch


Hanson's Retail Park, Cleveragh, Sligo.
Tel: 071-9161841/60363 Fax: 071-9169004
E-mail: sligo@siptu.ie
The Sectoral Organiser is John McCarrick.
He is supported by Adrian McArt and Anthony McCormack, Assistant Organisers and Pat O’Malley/Sandra Flanagan, Administrative Assistants.
The major employments in the Branch are:

• Bruss Ltd.
• Connacht Gold Co-Op
• Abott Ireland
• North Western Health Board

Lets stop whining about Siptu and just let them know directly.

Ring their office!
Send them a fax!
Send them an email!

Lets start a campaign!!!:)

Dirk Gently

CityCentreMan wrote: »

Lets start a campaign!!!:)

I emailed that branch as soon as I seen this thread, linking the story in the sligo weekender. I'd prefer to wait for their response before jumping on any bandwagon though.

Zynks

Flex wrote: »

...(I cant think up a suitable word to describe it at the moment) shop north trip ...

How about the "Brats' Tantrum Trip"?

Zynks

pah wrote: »

A bit of a simplistec opinion there. I wasn't happy with the paycuts. I doubt you'll find anyone in the PS who was!

I do however see the neccessity and I understand that it needed to be done. I'm still not happy, but I'll keep my job thanks.

Not trying to pick on PS, but isn't it great to have that choice? I am 90% certain that I will loose my job within the next six months, and that is after two years of pay freezes and tightening of conditions...

CityCentreMan

Sent:16 December 2009 18:06:17To: sligo@siptu.ie

Bussing Irish Jobs Over the Border‏

I am amazed at your proposal to jeopardise employment in Irish companies by proposing that you operate a bus for your members to shop over the border as some sort of reprisal to the government.

Can I respectfully suggest that as an alternative, it would be preferable for you to borrow a rifle and use it to shoot yourself in the foot. As a gesture of solidarity you could pass it around your members to share the experience.

This would generate a lot of noise locally and is more likely to generate sympathy for your cause than your current plans, which will just hurt the rest of us.

Best Regards

danman

Email sent......

Sir,
I cannot believe the naivety of the union, to organise a trip across the border with the mantra, "you hurt us we will hurt you".

http://www.sligoweekender.ie/news/story/?trs=mhsngbmhkf&cat=news

A quick google search told me that you represent private sector workers, namely:-

Bruss Ltd.
Connacht Gold Co-Op
Abott Ireland

Do these companies operate in the Republic?
Are they connected to the retail sector?

How will you react to the management of these firms when/if they decide to make redundancies?
Will you tell your members in these firms that we had to give our money to the northern retailers because we were hurting?

How long did it take to come up with this brainwave?

When the tax revenue is down further next year and the Government hits the public sector with another paycut, they can show you this campaign. You only hurt the rest of the economy, ordinary taxpayers by this sort of stupid campaign.

Yours,

pah

Zynks wrote: »

Not trying to pick on PS, but isn't it great to have that choice? I am 90% certain that I will loose my job within the next six months, and that is after two years of pay freezes and tightening of conditions...

Understood but I was speaking in terms of the post I had quoted from Bamboozle.

public servants, if you are unhappy with the pay cuts announced in the budget...QUIT

That's like telling ANY worker public or private if they don't like cuts to Quit. Nobody likes cuts I was just trying to highlight the simplicity of what he said.

Zynks

pah wrote: »

Understood but I was speaking in terms of the post I had quoted from Bamboozle.

public servants, if you are unhappy with the pay cuts announced in the budget...QUIT

That's like telling ANY worker public or private if they don't like cuts to Quit. Nobody likes cuts I was just trying to highlight the simplicity of what he said.

As I said, I am not picking at you or any PS worker. I was just highlighting that there is a silver lining on your story.

snubbleste

I would've thought that a lot of workers from Sligo would head across to Enniskillen for shopping anyway?

CityCentreMan

One of SIPTU's main employers in Sligo is Connacht Gold Coop which employs 550 people in the republic.

This map shows the locations of their stores in the Mayo / Northwest Area. I wonder how their employees feel about the proposal to bus Irish jobs north of the border.

Lets keep the pressure on!

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

gandalf

Jesus between this moronic campaign and the "leaders" of the trade union threatening to topple the government I think the time is right to go for the jugular. Cmon Brian and Brian if you do a good enough job on castrating the unions I might even vote for you, of course it will have to be a total sex change for the beards for that to happen

(also it makes me wonder do Siptu represent Northern Retail workers?)

ei.sdraob

gandalf wrote: »

Jesus between this moronic campaign and the "leaders" of the trade union threatening to topple the government I think the time is right to go for the jugular. Cmon Brian and Brian if you do a good enough job on castrating the unions I might even vote for you, of course it will have to be a total sex change for the beards for that to happen

(also it makes me wonder do Siptu represent Northern Retail workers?)

they do have offices and members is north

this is not as simple as public/private divide

since SIPTU have members in both, they are only hurting themselves

gandalf

ei.sdraob wrote: »

they do have offices and members is north

this is not as simple as public/private divide

since SIPTU have members in both, they are only hurting themselves

No its a Unions divided from Reality problem......

CityCentreMan

Having got over my initial outrage, I now see this as SIPTU scoring a tremendous "Own Goal". This is nearly as good as Liam Doran telling us to shut our mouths.

Keep it up boys - hopefully it gets a lot of publicity and generate a backlash that will further damage the union's already tattered public image.

RGS

This is a crazy idea and should be stopped by Liberty Hall diktat if necessary.

However can all those on this forum put hand on heart and state that they have never in the last 12 months crossed the border buying drink and groceries.

If you cant you are as bad as the crowd going over on a bus.

How many have purchased cars in the UK over the past 5 years depriving the local garage a sale.

People in glass houses should not throw stones.

Flamed Diving

RGS wrote: »

This is a crazy idea and should be stopped by Liberty Hall diktat if necessary.

However can all those on this forum put hand on heart and state that they have never in the last 12 months crossed the border buying drink and groceries.

If you cant you are as bad as the crowd going over on a bus.

How many have purchased cars in the UK over the past 5 years depriving the local garage a sale.

People in glass houses should not throw stones.

I can.

All those like me, thank this post.

Bandit12

Another good idea from SIPTU. Let's stop this race to the bottom nonsense

CityCentreMan

RGS wrote: »

However can all those on this forum put hand on heart and state that they have never in the last 12 months crossed the border buying drink and groceries.

If you cant you are as bad as the crowd going over on a bus.

Individual shoppers going north for a better deal is rational consumer behaviour which will eventually, thru competitive pressure, force prices here down as well. The reduction in the VAT Rate and DUTY on Booze are examples of this happening in practice.

Arranging busloads of union members to shop up north as a deliberate ploy to deprive our government of the taxes that it uses to pay public sector wages is akin to shooting oneself in the foot which is not rational consumer behaviour!!

RGS

CityCentreMan wrote: »

Individual shoppers going north for a better deal is rational consumer behaviour which will eventually, thru competitive pressure, force prices here down as well. The reduction in the VAT Rate and DUTY on Booze are examples of this happening in practice.

What a load of dross--the VAT reduction and excise reduction will do diddly squat to stop the shoppers going north.

Secondly any consumer going north is depriving his local shop of much need revenue to pay his taxes and salaries of his employees, who next year could be on the dole, thereby requiring the government to find more money to pay SW.

Rujib1

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

i really have no idea what to say about this. I'm shocked and I really really hope that I'm going to wake up in the shower in a few minutes and realise it was all a bad dream Dallas style.

.

OMG, where did you get the water proof laptop, to be able to post this from the shower.
We need waterproof laptops down the west sooooo badly.

TIA

Lockstep

Trade unionist here (Mandate).

Even I must admit I'm pretty shocked by this proposal. I really don't see what it achieves and galvanises public opinion against trade unions even further.


Although saying that, I'm not ashamed I'm a member of a union either, it seems some people treat all trade unions as a single entity.

pah

CityCentreMan wrote: »

Individual shoppers going north for a better deal is rational consumer behaviour which will eventually, thru competitive pressure, force prices here down as well. The reduction in the VAT Rate and DUTY on Booze are examples of this happening in practice.

Arranging busloads of union members to shop up north as a deliberate ploy to deprive our government of the taxes that it uses to pay public sector wages is akin to shooting oneself in the foot which is not rational consumer behaviour!!

What you said.

nesf

Bandit12 wrote: »

Another good idea from SIPTU. Let's stop this race to the bottom nonsense

Eh, shifting consumption to the North will just accelerate the race to the bottom as only those retail firms with the lowest costs and wages will survive. If you want to stop the race to the bottom, shop in Ireland.

ninty9er

As sent only 5 minutes ago

[FONT=&quot]From:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] ninty9er
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sent:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] 16 December 2009 21:33
To: 'sligo@siptu.ie'
Subject: Shop North Protest[/FONT]

Dear SIPTU Organiser,

I’m gleeful today to be able to call myself a former SIPTU member. As someone who was employed in the retail sector for a number of years until 2008, I cannot comprehend how anyone could think such a public attack on the employment of union members in the Republic employed in retail, haulage and services could help your ridiculous cause to overturn cuts that were not only not severe, but will be much worse next year if you pursue your ridiculous plan to take members to Northern Ireland to shop.

I only hope many others will see sense and make themselves former members of SIPTU, rendering it, and you with it, irrelevant. Get back to me when you are in the dole queue as a result of dwindling membership requiring ever less representation and tell me that a 5% pay cut is severe!

Yours in utmost contempt,


ninty9er

P. Breathnach

Flamed Diving wrote: »

I can.

All those like me, thank this post.

I also can, and I live near the border. I choose to shop locally not so much for patriotic motives, but because I want to be a good neighbour. I don't want my neighbours losing their jobs.

CityCentreMan

Keep sending those emails to siptu. Let them know that they don't have public support