Dunnes workers to strike

bettyl wrote: »

This was put on a Facebook site set up by staff against strike:


Mandates way of gaining revenue action plan

1. dream up a campaign with a catchy slogan. key objective is to get public sympathy. don't worry if your 'facts' aren't true.
2. get your hard core members to buy into the campaign by promising the earth. it doesn't matter if you know you can't deliver.
3. make the campaign public and ensure that you make out the employer to be nasty, uncaring and selfish and only interested in making money ( okay that's what businesses do but lets not get bogged down in the details)
4. organise meetings all over the country to start getting the subscriptions rolling in. tell the crowds that turn up that all they have to do is follow your instructions and their lives will be transformed ( in the absence of crowds, tell the handful that turn up that their job is to do your job. recruit people from their stores by telling them the same lies you have told and not to listen to any facts. they just get in the way.
5. organise a ballot for strike action. this is the easy bit as we know we have enough in the hardcore to get our majority. most will not bother voting as they will not believe that people will follow us to the cliff. we will use their complacency against them.
6. announce the result to widespread acclaim. headline " two thirds of dunnes staff vote for strike action " yes we know that only 2000 people have voted yes which is only 40 % of mandate members and on conservative estimates 20 % of the workforce but do not worry, we know our friends in the press never let the facts get in the way of a good story. now we up the recruitment drive with the knowledge that we have a mandate from our people.
6. if your loyal disciples manage to convince enough people in their stores to join the crusade it is then all their jobs to do whatever it takes to put pressure on everyone else to join up. let them know that their failure to join up will not be appreciated and that it is unacceptable not to follow the herd even if it is heading for the edge of a cliff. do not be put off by silly concerns from some about the damage to the business and their incomes. this will all fade away when mandate gets in the drivers seat. and some of your less intelligent colleagues will even spout rubbish about being happy in their jobs. do not listen to them. for they know not what they do.
7. if you fail to get any of your colleagues to buy into mandates 'vision' due to them having a mind of their own do not worry. we will launch a campaign of online abuse calling them names and attempt to shame them into following us to the cliff. we have other tactics but they will be revealed later.
8. get some willing volunteers to speak to the press about the horrible conditions they have to work under. make sure they emphasise how horrible their managers are and that they are specially trained in the dark arts of nastiness, sneakiness and having no decency whatsoever. your volunteers may add for sensationalism that they believe this training is carried out by the kgb. it does not matter that most of them are just ordinary people who were once staff themselves and are just trying to better themselves by moving up the ladder. remember facts are the enemy of our movement.
9. organise some pre strike events giving out some free pens and shopping bags to show how generous we are. we give you free what dunnes stores charges you for. we are so nice. these shopping bags will come in handy when you will all shop in aldi and lidl in the future when all other retailers are wiped out. the pens will come in handy for signing on. don't publicise that bit.
10. the day of the strike arrives and unbelievably many non believers have decided to go to work. the cheek. how dare they defy us. some whole stores defy us. do not worry believers, we will teach them. we will send professional protesters en masse to show them that they will not defy us. do they think this is a democracy or something. willing politicians will queue up to have their photos taken in the pursuit of popularity with the masses. they will not ask any awkward questions about facts, they seek only votes. our friends in the press will support us not bothered by the fact that, with a few exceptions , large numbers of the picketers are not dunnes staff. in some stores all the staff are at work but we send our nastiest people to them to intimidate their loyal customers from shopping with them.
11. we are then met with widespread acclaim for our wonderful strike. no one questions us. we are all powerful. no one will know that behind the scenes we have an ever growing pile of resignation letters to get through. well they will wait and while they wait we will continue to take their money. we will also send them threatening letters to try to intimidate them to remain on course with us as we head for the cliff. do not worry at this stage that sales may fall in your stores and your hours may be cut. it is a small price to pay for the glorious future ahead when dunnes stores is nationalised by people before profit. then we wil enter a great age where hard work is no longer rewarded and our country will collapse into a spiral of decline. but don't worry you will be armed with your free pens and shopping bags for your weekly trips to the dole office and aldi and lidl. what a bright future we will have.
12. unfortunately this is where all union led operations take a turn for the worst. having reached our peak we now know that large numbers of dunnes stores staff have seen through our recruitment drive. we are buried under a pile of resignations and need temporary storage facilities as our offices are overflowing. so instead of announcing a sequel to the most successful strike in history, we put out soundbites about escalating our action. we talk about about public events and marches ( cliff top marches would be best) . the truth is we need to string this out as long as we can to keep the money rolling in while not doing anything at all. we will make empty threats and speak of legal action and government legislation. yes the government, the same government we are fighting with over water charges. they will save us.
13. so keep the faith, we have gathered many members, if only for a few weeks, but hey its better than nothing. unfortunately we cannot currently pay you your strike pay because we gave away all our pens and therefore cannot write the cheques. sorry about that. now who do we target next on our recruitment drive. and do not worry faithful followers, some will say we made a mess of this but its what we do. and let nobody say we are not damn good at it.

McLoughlin wrote: »

Dunnes Staff sign minimum 15 hour contract and then start complaining when they are given a 15 hour week. :rolleyes:

Plates wrote: »

In other words you have nothing to support your opinions against the facts of others.

bettyl wrote: »

A point that was made to me. Dunnes have been running voucher offers since last year. These vouchers are bringing people into the store to shop (me for example, i'm usually a wherever is handy person). More people in the doors means more business, means more hours. If you think about it this probably costs millions per week. This will also have a knock on effect for suppliers. They are in some ways buying business to protect sales and therefore hours and jobs.

razzler wrote: »

What's called a full time job should at least provide for the basics of living. Not talking about luxuries or holidays. And they don't tell you at induction stage that as your pay per hour increases your rostered hours decreases, thereby cancelling out the pay rises that some keep pointing out.

Starshadow wrote: »

Thats something we're going to have to learn in this country,

People in this thread are talking about a mortgage as if its a human right that everyone be able to own a home of their own (As if you actually own it while borrowing hundreds of thousands of euros).

But then to try and finance it with an unstable profession? The same type of role a student might want? Thats just madness, and it should not be a point to argue with in this discussion.



Im sorry but what kind of logic is that? Just because the company is successful they should pay people a lot more than the standard which skills, experience and education estimate for a person?

I used to do a lot of work, I mean 60+ hours a week working on projects for a company that shall not be named which made 40 billion dollars in profit last year. For the amount of time i worked and effort I put into it, I was a paid a pittance in relation to the profit. But thats not how things work, you don't get a percentage, unless your a shareholder.

mhaise wrote: »

Irish Independent rich list put Dunnes Stores 2owners combined wealth put at €758,000,000 or to put it another way over ¾ of a billion euro while they exploit workers. With profits of €350,000,000 last year they are hardly on their uppers and can't plead poverty. It's worker exploitation pure and simple. They know that people are desperate for work, any work at all.

Celtic tiger years gone now so many chasing every single job, it's an employers market and boy don't they know it. They are putting squeeze on workers who have to take it or leave.