Dunnes workers to strike

razzler

Eric Cartman wrote: »

no, you have anecdotal evidence from a few staff that have issues and have based your opinion of everyones treatment in dunnes on those few. We have 226 independent reviews written down , not word of mouth giving an 80% satisfaction rating for dunnes employees, and the inarguable fact that only 19% of the staff voted for strike action .

25%. And remember, a large portion of staff are not permanent so couldn't strike, but these should not be automatically counted as a no vote.

Eric Cartman

razzler wrote: »

25%. And remember, a large portion of staff are not permanent so couldn't strike, but these should not be automatically counted as a no vote.

where is it 25, i gave a breakdown for 19, please explain how its 25.

they shouldn't be counted as a yes or wanting to be in a union either.

razzler

razzler wrote: »

25%. And remember, a large portion of staff are not permanent so couldn't strike, but these should not be automatically counted as a no vote.

Please explain. Many years ago, I worked at Dunnes on one of these 15 hour (Flexitime) contracts. I joined the Union a few weeks before the last strike (In order to get the strike pay). There was nothing stopping any of us striking back then. What changed?

razzler

Originally Posted by wrote: »

Oh Lord - really?

I'm still waiting for someone to share their insights on a solution that wouldn't result in pay cuts or redundancies across the board.

A solution would be to give the guarantee of a min of 25 hours a week. Other companies manage to do it. Pay cuts and redundancies would not be because of granting this but because of greed, to maximise profits at the expense of staff. Can't a company behave with some morality and still be profitable? And before there's a cry of "But it's a business!", the public image of Dunnes has taken a battering which will affect business. There should not be any job losses, just less temporary staff hired (can't lose a job you never had) after the existing staff get their 25 hours.
Also, many staff who had reduced hours qualified for Family Income Supplement. How does the public feel about picking up the welfare tab because Dunnes is cutting hours to save money?

Eric Cartman

razzler wrote: »

A solution would be to give the guarantee of a min of 25 hours a week. Other companies manage to do it. Pay cuts and redundancies would not be because of granting this but because of greed, to maximise profits at the expense of staff. Can't a company behave with some morality and still be profitable? And before there's a cry of "But it's a business!", the public image of Dunnes has taken a battering which will affect business. There should not be any job losses, just less temporary staff hired (can't lose a job you never had) after the existing staff get their 25 hours.
Also, many staff who had reduced hours qualified for Family Income Supplement. How does the public feel about picking up the welfare tab because Dunnes is cutting hours to save money?

the welfare tab being too high is a different issue. Id like people just to solidly make their own way in life.

razzler

Eric Cartman wrote: »

where is it 25, i gave a breakdown for 19, please explain how its 25.

they shouldn't be counted as a yes or wanting to be in a union either.

I'd reckon 25% voted for strike action based on 11,000 employees, 4000 in the union and 67% of these voted in favour.[/QUOTE]

I've copied a previous post I made (#411) to show where 25% came from.

Eric Cartman

razzler wrote: »

I'd reckon 25% voted for strike action based on 11,000 employees, 4000 in the union and 67% of these voted in favour.

I've copied a previous post I made (#411) to show where 25% came from.[/QUOTE]

can you give a source on your 11,000

I have 2 sources for 14,000~ in post 362
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=95073599&postcount=362

razzler

razzler wrote: »

25%. And remember, a large portion of staff are not permanent so couldn't strike, but these should not be automatically counted as a no vote.

Deleted User wrote: »

Please explain. Many years ago, I worked at Dunnes on one of these 15 hour (Flexitime) contracts. I joined the Union a few weeks before the last strike (In order to get the strike pay). There was nothing stopping any of us striking back then. What changed?

Were you permanent when you striked? If yes then they couldn't just let you go without very good reason and you could challenge it, but if a staff is still on their trial period and went on strike they could expect to be let go without any reason given.

razzler

Eric Cartman wrote: »

I've copied a previous post I made (#411) to show where 25% came from.

can you give a source on your 11,000

I have 2 sources for 14,000~ in post 362
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=95073599&postcount=362[/QUOTE]

11,000 is from head office (my post #406). Maybe you can find a survey to show head office they're wrong?

razzler

razzler wrote: »

Were you permanent when you striked? If yes then they couldn't just let you go without very good reason and you could challenge it, but if a staff is still on their trial period and went on strike they could expect to be let go without any reason given.

Like the worker recently? He was laid off the day after the strike. Seems he had broken his time there, left and came back again.
The term for my employment was called "Full time Flexitime". There were very few permanent workers there, as in 40 hour week workers.

Penny Tration

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Like the worker recently? He was laid off the day after the strike. Seems he had broken his time there, left and came back again.
The term for my employment was called "Full time Flexitime". There were very few permanent workers there, as in 40 hour week workers.

40 a week is full time, not permanent.

Permanent - not on a temporary contract (contract states if it's temporary), working for one year or more.

Jenny Thalia

Jenny Thalia wrote: »

40 a week is full time, not permanent.

Permanent - not on a temporary contract (contract states if it's temporary), working for one year or more.

The previous poster seemed to be suggesting that you couldn't join a Union unless you were permanent. Is he right? My point was that I was on fulltime/flexitime (even though I was only getting 15 hours towards the end, down from 35 when I started) and I was a member of a Union. I can't remember the wording of the contract, as it was 20 odd years ago.

the groutch

It's not about the non-permanent staff being allowed to join a union (legally they cannot be prevented), it's about the fact that if they did strike (even with the legal protection of union membership), at the end of their probationary period the employer can let them go for taking part in the strike, but just masquerade it as being for any one of a multitude of other reasons.

jank

the groutch wrote: »

It's not about the non-permanent staff being allowed to join a union (legally they cannot be prevented), it's about the fact that if they did strike (even with the legal protection of union membership), at the end of their probationary period the employer can let them go for taking part in the strike, but just masquerade it as being for any one of a multitude of other reasons.

An employer can let someone go before the end of the probationary period for whatever reason they want, hence why its called probation. Don't see this as an issue as a probation period is common world wide.

FreudianSlippers

Only an absolute fool would go on strike during their probationary period.

jank

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Only an absolute fool would go on strike during their probationary period.

Are there Darwin type awards for this behaviour? Yes, very foolish. Its as if the employee is daring the employer to take action.

FreudianSlippers

Also, there is no way a person on probation has worked there long enough to take a realistic view on the working conditions in order to form the requisite opinion that strike action is necessary.

Chucken

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Excellent post.

What people don't seem to realise is that for a company to pay you €10. 00 ph you need to be worth €10.00+ for the company.
Now that's not a definitive summation, but generally it works out.
Some punters seem to be under the impression that just turning up is good,just be there,and all is ok
Nah,that's not the way it works, lot of people need to realise this.

What a lovely view of Dunnes workers..or anyone that serves you..boss.

Deleted User wrote: »

Please explain. Many years ago, I worked at Dunnes on one of these 15 hour (Flexitime) contracts. I joined the Union a few weeks before the last strike (In order to get the strike pay). There was nothing stopping any of us striking back then. What changed?

I bet you worked 15 hours because it didn't affect yours/ husband/partners dole.

Did the same myself..in the 80s.

So you joined a union to get strike pay???

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Only an absolute fool would go on strike during their probationary period.

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Also, there is no way a person on probation has worked there long enough to take a realistic view on the working conditions in order to form the requisite opinion that strike action is necessary.

Probably.
Do you get probation in the Courts? Or are you just thrown in there???

Chucken

Chucken wrote: »

I bet you worked 15 hours because it didn't affect yours/ husband/partners dole.

Did the same myself..in the 80s.

So you joined a union to get strike pay???

Working always affects dole - IF one is on it!

Yes, I couldn't afford to be getting nothing, so I signed up and took the money!