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Electricians' strike 'a major success' - TEEU

The Valley

A major success by our electricians
* in putting irish electrical jobs/contracts at risk
* In putting irish jobs at risk - manufacturing jobs at plants that cannot have interuptions to their process

As all the international media report their demands they are damaging Ireland Inc and putting future foreign investment at risk.

Electricians do not have my backing, nor anybody I have talked to, so go back to work you bunch of tossers and be glad you have a job to go to.

And as a last rant, if you dont like the pay and conditions here, move over and let someone else take your position and piss off to somewhere else, may I suggest Poland (I hear the pay is very competitive there):mad:

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wexford202

I fully agree.

There is no way there are 10,500 people striking and I would urge all other contractors not to follow suit as the industry is in enough trouble at the minute.

ANYONE WITH A JOB SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO HAVE IT.

Electricians are the highest paid skilled trade in the construction indusrty at the minute.

Darragh29

Eamon Devoy from the TEEU was on Pat Kenny this morning swinging his dick all around studio... He says to the employers, "we've shut down your businesses and they won't be opening again until we say so"... For saying that alone, the man should have been pulled out of the chair by his fu*king ear and thrown through the studio window.

bladespin

Well you must understand that €800 per week is tough to get by on :rolleyes:

weird

The Valley wrote: »

A major success by our electricians
* in putting irish electrical jobs/contracts at risk
* In putting irish jobs at risk - manufacturing jobs at plants that cannot have interuptions to their process

As all the international media report their demands they are damaging Ireland Inc and putting future foreign investment at risk.

Electricians do not have my backing, nor anybody I have talked to, so go back to work you bunch of tossers and be glad you have a job to go to.

And as a last rant, if you dont like the pay and conditions here, move over and let someone else take your position and piss off to somewhere else, may I suggest Poland (I hear the pay is very competitive there):mad:

Agree completely. Did you know the union has Electricians picketing sites they aren't even hired on?!?

wexford202

Darragh29 wrote: »

Eamon Devoy from the TEEU was on Pat Kenny this morning swinging his dick all around studio... He says to the employers, "we've shut down your businesses and they won't be opening again until we say so"... For saying that alone, the man should have been pulled out of the chair by his fu*king ear and thrown through the studio window.

That should be all over the news.

He is a sick [EMAIL="f@#ker"]f@#ker[/EMAIL]. All those union guys are the same. They came down to our site to get our guys to strike. They ever started to picket outside and they do not have any members there.

Then they started throwing stuff at one of our lads going home from work. He was sorry he didn't video them.

Darragh29

wexford202 wrote: »

That should be all over the news.

He is a sick [EMAIL="f@#ker"]f@#ker[/EMAIL]. All those union guys are the same. They came down to our site to get our guys to strike. They ever started to picket outside and they do not have any members there.

Then they started throwing stuff at one of our lads going home from work. He was sorry he didn't video them.

You can hear it on the podcast on www.rte.ie, just go into radio and pick "Pat Kenny Show"... Couldn't believe what I was hearing, that's up there with outrageous statements like, "do you know who I am", etc... I'd love to take the likes of Eamon Devoy and put them in charge of a struggling business for a day and see how they cope with 20,000 Euro uncleared funds in the bank and 25K of cheques to be written for today...

These guys are living in some sort of twlight zone/parallel universe...

wexford202

They sneal onto site without signing on.

They creep around trying to nab electricians all the time. The managed to get past security on one of our sites and went up to the foreman and said I am sick of all you country lads taking our work.

The foreman looked puzzled and said do you know a country man owns this site and development.

They constantly ring and try to bully you into giving information. I know a contractor that was misled into giving them info and lthough he was pretty above board they still found ways of taking alot of money off him for nonsense things like train fares etc.

It is not the employers obligation to sort each employees contributions to the unions each month. If I was the employer I would be telling my employees to sort their own contributions. I would like to see how many of them go out of their way each month to pay the contributions.

sparkzter

I am an out of work electrician and we are not highest paid on every site, maybe yours wexford. They are in the right legally. The pay increase is from an agreement within the labour courts dating back to 2007. I notice nobody has mentioned TV3's Vincent Browne show last night where he berated the ECA (Electrical contractors assosiation) that broke the contract and stole the electricians money. All the fat cats from REA (Registered employers agency), ECA have been paid very self generously, More than an electrician could ever earn. There was no crisis in 2007 and therein lies the problem.
This bad timing of action is no coincidence. A proposed pay cut by the REA has been mentioned at a staggering 21% decrease. Nobody in any other occupation would take this lyeing down.
I personally think it's madness striking in this economic climate but that is the unions call, not the electricians. We have to stand by the union because its there fault we are tied to the REA's shackles. The union got into a double bed with them in 1990 when they should have stayed in two singles i feel. We are stuck with this agreement and it's not us that has broken our contractual obligation. It's the ECA and REA

bladespin

Why didn't the Union force the rise in 2007? If they let it go then then it's their fault, the electricians should by rights be protesting the union not the sites that are actually still providing jobs.

sparkzter

bladespin wrote: »

Why didn't the Union force the rise in 2007? If they let it go then then it's their fault, the electricians should by rights be protesting the union not the sites that are actually still providing jobs.

The union have been persueing and warning the ECA of the unrest since then. We don't just strike as a knee jerk reaction, In fact we have never been on strike since 1990, although we have had reason to through losing certain benefits such as pension payments. I am not particulary happy with our union over this but there has been no unrest for a long time and they have served a purpose.

Andy18

I am also an electrician and before people come out with stupid comments like "Electricians are the highest paid skilled trade in the construction indusrty at the minute" should do their homework because we are far from it plumbers etc are higher paid so you obviously dont have a clue what your talking about you should educate yourself about the situation before you make comments about us also this strike is not only about pay there's many other issues apprentices could be looking at over 30% decrease in pay in certain conditions for example.

wexford 202 - if you work on site you should know yourself if the teeu fail in their bid to keep their agreement all the agreements within the construction sector will be next to go so you will then be directly affected and you wont be so quick to criticise. the cif want the wages dropped across the board and the electricians are first to be targeted if everyone in the country has the mentality that "ANYONE WITH A JOB SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO HAVE IT" and we should abandon our agreements it'll be a race to the bottom and all employees will be on minimum wage while employers and the cif line their pockets. i am greatful to have a job but we have to look after the bigger picture and stand up for our rights.

Bladespin: I dont earn near 800 a week none of the sparks in my company do so your assesment of our pay is completly wrong.

Finally eamonn devoy may have said some harsh things but what about tom parlon saying today 'we cannot let the lunatics be in charge'. this was a rediculous comment to make he's resorted to name calling now, this shouldn't be the kind of comments he should be coming out with after all he will eventually have to negotiate with theese "lunatics"

The Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), CIF, Electrical Contractors Of Ireland (AECI) and The National Electrical Contractors Ireland (NECI) are the ones to blame for this strike they refused to negotiate terms forcing us into this position theese contractors are also relying on tom parlon for help dont forget,

"In May 2009, the Sunday Independent newspaper reported that Parlon was raising a warchest from developers to oppose the formation of the National Asset Management Agency and potentially take a legal action against it.

He hoped that each member of CIF would pay €2,000 into the fund. The foundation of a sub-committee within CIF and the collection of the €2,000 levy was opposed by the Irish Property Council which stated: It is not understood if or how a sub-committee of the CIF has a mandate which allows it represent property developers in all of the current areas of concern as against the interests of the construction industry as a whole".

Theese are the people who helped bring down the country and now want the average middle earning person take pay cuts and slash working conditions so they can line their pockets once again while we are the ones to suffer. Its time we stood up for ourselves and we wont give in we have to stand strong and stand up for our rights.

darcy.jonny

no sympathy for the electricans at all .... from a plumber

theres thousands of construction workers unemployed at the moment ..... there are cuts in wages across the board including ministers and even some judges are taking the cuts

to be honest this stinks of a bad plan to be honest .

looking for the increase is just a way of trying to stop ten percent pay cuts .

so enjoy your lil strike , ull be out of a job soon enough

and since when are these contractors lining there pockets ??? its clear and evident that the majority of contractors wernt making the huge money that was presumed .

simple maths can apply here ... less work .... large cuts in job pricing ....... insurance costs and tax rising ...... less profit

DAYDREAMERS .

Andy18

Plumbers have got their pay increases over the last three years so when you lose 10 percent you'll still have a higher rate than we do now never mind if we lose another 10%. you'll be complaining when they throw out your agreement with all your conditions. we're effectively losing 21% of course we're going to stand up for ourselves. Most plumbers are backing us because they know if our agreement fails theirs is in jepoardy and your naive to think this isint the case. if people like you keep trying to hinder the effort to stand up against employers and cif the whole construction industry will be a race to the bottom and employers will be paying minimum wage eventually.
we have to protect our agreements at all costs its the only thing that secures our wages and working conditions.

have a look around contractors and develoers have been lining their pockets for years its a big part of the reason our economy is falling into such a deep recession.

And the contractors are still submitting tenders based on the agreement they wont uphold so how are they losing out? they have been submitting tenders for the last three years based on our agreement rates but they've been paying us 11% less than this rate.

cutting employees pay is not going to solve this lack of work and everyone knows that.
Why should we take a pay cut when the employers are charging out based on the agreement they refuse uphold for the last three years they have been holding our money and when it was put to the chairman of the eca on the television last night why are they holding the money they owe us when they had charged out for it he was lost for words.

scorpioishere

To some of the lazy ****ers electricians, stop your silly strikes and go back and do something concrete. You should all be lucky to have a job while other people are struggling to make a living. You do get high wages and you want more.

One electrician came to my company to fix something minor and he took 3 hours to do it. During the three hours he went for smoke, talk on the phone, look around, walk, scratch his ass, have a coffee, look around, look at the manual as if he's making great effort. 3 hours of waste and you want more money. Get your ass to work before you are out.:mad:

scorpioishere

The Valley wrote: »

A major success by our electricians
* in putting irish electrical jobs/contracts at risk
* In putting irish jobs at risk - manufacturing jobs at plants that cannot have interuptions to their process

As all the international media report their demands they are damaging Ireland Inc and putting future foreign investment at risk.

Electricians do not have my backing, nor anybody I have talked to, so go back to work you bunch of tossers and be glad you have a job to go to.

And as a last rant, if you dont like the pay and conditions here, move over and let someone else take your position and piss off to somewhere else, may I suggest Poland (I hear the pay is very competitive there):mad:

Yeah if they don't like it move away and give the job to people who wants to work and who is happy on minimum wage.

darcy.jonny

tell ya what dont like the wages go and get a job doing something else .......................... oh wait there is no jobs out there .

and a ten percent pay cut is far better than being on the dole

and no it ant there fault that the ecomony is in bits its everybodys , typical irish attitude to strike thinking your actually owed something in life and sulk and winge about it

watch other countries come out of the recession over the next few years while were stuck in it , and y ?? because of employee and unions attitude ,our work foce wage demands are out through the roof compared to eu averages , which has made this country uncompetitive along with many other issues ........ but the biggest problem is labour costs for any business ............ ida did a lot of work getting these multi national companies to come here and because of people striking like these electricans nobody will come near this country again

Andy18

Why should we work for minimum wage? we're skilled tradesmen and we've earned our wages trust me its not an easy job and if you think that you dont have a clue what your talking about. its stupid to tar us all with the same brush because you saw one lazy electrician. i work very hard for my money and i'v been to college and earned my qualification so why should i not be paid what the agreement the employers signed says i should when all the other trades have had their agreements upheld.

sedgley

Although I think it's a bad idea at the moment, It's a democratic right to join a union. It's a democratic right to strike. I can say for sure that a friend of mine working for a large electrical contractor who is on temporary lay off was called today and offered his job back, as were over 50 others on lay off. They all said no. Now ALL the sparks from that firm have been temporarily layed off. You have to respect their solidarity all the same.

darcy.jonny

if times were not the way they are ild easily support the electricians completely ......................... but come on this is not the time to rock the boat ... ur in a sinking ship

scorpioishere

Why can't you work on minimum wage? If everybody who went to college think like you, well the country will be in recession for eternity.

ixoy

Andy18 wrote: »

Why should we work for minimum wage?

Who's suggest you do? 21e an hour is well above the minimum wage - it's a good wage by most yardsticks and 23e would be even better (never mind all the other costs that can be claimed according to other posters).

so why should i not be paid what the agreement the employers signed says i should when all the other trades have had their agreements upheld.

Because their pay increase came at a different time, when it was more affordable. Economic circumstances have changed - it's been on the news a bit - and so companies cannot all afford this. Sure, some contractors now might be able to but look at the next contract being tendered, see how they'll need to cut their prices and maybe now they'll decided to hire 60 works instead of 65 due to the costs, and that's five of you joining the dole.

Andy18

so would you as a plumber take a 21% pay cut and your current pay conditions slashed just to have a job, would you sell out your trade? or would you bite the bullet and stand up for yourself if we lose this your livleyhood will probably be threatened next and we'll see how you react.

I dont want to be on strike but im not going to sit back as my employers line their pockets at my expense we have to stand up for ourselves. I have seen support from plenty of plumbers over the last two days not one plumber has crossed a picket and they have expressed full support its a shame they have people like you with them who wont be willing to stand up against the employers when they try to take your wages and your work conditions down people like you will bring your own trade down

alphamale 1

I fully agree to you. There is over 400 k on the dole and they are looking for an increase. I thik the real motive behind it is the 3.5 % that the ESB granted themselves last January on top of their generoussalries. One wonders are the electricians too late in making this claim. I know several people ( including solicitors & electricians) who would gladly accept a 10 % pay cut to stay in work and not have to wait three months for Jobseekers

sedgley

scorpioishere wrote: »

Why can't you work on minimum wage? If everybody who went to college think like you, well the country will be in recession for eternity.

Electricians will never be on minimum wage, just like doctors and solicitors will never be. Why would you bother learning a trade when you could work in a spar shop for the same money?

Andy18

scorpioishere: what your saying is rediculous why would a skilled worker do a hard job for minimum wage and why should they have to?

ixoy: if our ageement is abolished whitch is what the employers union want there is nothing to stop employers from forcing lads to undercut one another eventually resulting in minimum wage

And OUR PAY INCRESE WAS DUE 3 YEARS AGO when times were good!!!. The employers have refused to pay it for the last three years. our union have been trying to negotiate this for 3 years, recently the employers said they wont talk to our union anymore knowing they were in a position of power due to the downturn. meanwhile they have been charging out based on this incresed rate that they wont pay us. They have been withholding our money for 3 years and now and now refuse to talk to us so we are forced into industrial action to get them back to the table.

As i said again we dont want to be on strike but they wont even talk to our union so why should we let them abolish our agreements make a mockery of our union and us by pocketing our money they've charged out on jobs for us and never paid us! if we let this happen where would it end?

sparkzter

darcy.jonny wrote: »

if times were not the way they are ild easily support the electricians completely ......................... but come on this is not the time to rock the boat ... ur in a sinking ship

Wonder how you would feel as a fellow tradesmen if your pay was not per agreement. Bad timing is not a reason not to be for or against this dispute. You say we're in a sinking ship, well throw us a lifeline so as we would you.

Scorpio, Why should skilled tradesmen work for minimum wage? Your argument is to say the least a load of bollox.

Sorry about the timing everyone but we are protesting about corporate theft. The relevant agencies are guilty, not electricians. As Andy says there are alot of other issues we are striking over, including owed pension payments for some lads amounting to thousands of euro. Wonder how you would feel, pissed off to say the least I'd imagine.

Spudmonkey

Andy18 wrote: »

so would you as a plumber take a 21% pay cut and your current pay conditions slashed just to have a job, would you sell out your trade? or would you bite the bullet and stand up for yourself if we lose this your livleyhood will probably be threatened next and we'll see how you react.

I dont want to be on strike but im not going to sit back as my employers line their pockets at my expense we have to stand up for ourselves. I have seen support from plenty of plumbers over the last two days not one plumber has crossed a picket and they have expressed full support its a shame they have people like you with them who wont be willing to stand up against the employers when they try to take your wages and your work conditions down people like you will bring your own trade down

What kind of crap is this? If an electrician took a 10% paycut, which is what CIF are looking for, electricians would be paid ~18 euro an hour. Oh to be paid 18 euro an hour...... and I work in a industry not too far from removed from an electrician. I also went to college for four years and have a very good degree!

While employers line their pockets? Oh yes because we all know they are making a killing now, sure hasn't business probably gone through the roof!! I mean they are probably inundated with business...

I predict this recession will last a long time!

the bolt

Andy18 wrote: »

scorpioishere: what your saying is rediculous why would a skilled worker do a hard job for minimum wage and why should they have to?

ixoy: if our ageement is abolished whitch is what the employers union want there is nothing to stop employers from forcing lads to undercut one another eventually resulting in minimum wage

And OUR PAY INCRESE WAS DUE 3 YEARS AGO when times were good!!!. The employers have refused to pay it for the last three years. our union have been trying to negotiate this for 3 years, recently the employers said they wont talk to our union anymore knowing they were in a position of power due to the downturn. meanwhile they have been charging out based on this incresed rate that they wont pay us. They have been withholding our money for 3 years and now and now refuse to talk to us so we are forced into industrial action to get them back to the table.

As i said again we dont want to be on strike but they wont even talk to our union so why should we let them abolish our agreements make a mockery of our union and us by pocketing our money they've charged out on jobs for us and never paid us! if we let this happen where would it end?

as someone who supports your strike can you tell me why your union didnt call this strike three years ago when the economy was in better condition and they needed you more than they do now? good luck.

the bolt

Spudmonkey wrote: »

What kind of crap is this? If an electrician took a 10% paycut, which is what CIF are looking for, electricians would be paid ~18 euro an hour. Oh to be paid 18 euro an hour...... and I work in a industry not too far from removed from an electrician. I also went to college for four years and have a very good degree!

While employers line their pockets? Oh yes because we all know they are making a killing now, sure hasn't business probably gone through the roof!! I mean they are probably inundated with business...

I predict this recession will last a long time!

why didnt you train as a sparky then?

Spudmonkey

Because I wouldn't have liked the job. Its not all about the money, if you start chasing money, you end up in something you don't like.