<Get Up Stand Up>

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Round 2 of the get up stand up leafletting took place last Saturday afternoon

(14th May).

Round 2 of the get up stand up leafletting took place last Saturday afternoon (14th May). And while the numbers taking part were lower than round 1, which took place after the Mayday march( see http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69665), what we lacked in numbers we made up for in enthusiasm. Meetings, conferences, medical training and weddings combined to ensure that many of our activists were otherwise occupied but nevertheless those of us who did turn up distributed about 1,000 leaflets in about an hour and a half. Shopworkers in the Grafton Street-South William Street area and in the St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre were leafletted with the leaflet detailing basic workers' rights and urging them to join a trade union and stand up for their rights. We got a very positive response from everyone and the leaflets were eagerly accepted by all. And of course the fact that the sun was shining made for a very pleasant stroll along the street popping in and out of the shops.

The next leafletting session will take place on Thursday 26th May when we hope to leaflet the Jervis centre, ILAC Centre and O'Connell Street. We're meeting up outside the Jervis Centre (Henry St. entrance) at 7pm and plan on following up our activity with a short meeting in the lounge of the Teachers Club (36 Parnell Square) around 9pm. This meeting will discuss ideas for taking our campaign to such far flung places as Dundrum 'Town Centre', The Square in Tallaght, Blanchardstown, Liffey Valley and various other suburban locations!! So forget about weddings etc. and come along, get involved - the more the merrier. It'll be easy to remember the date, it's the night after Liverpool are going to win the European Cup. See you there.

# posted by antrophe @ 3:13 AM

(0) comments

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Mayday Round Of Leafletting

This is a report of a union recruitment / anti-precarity action organised for the end of the Dublin Trade Union mayday march (which actually took place April 30). Ireland traditionally has a very high rate of union membership but this has been rapidly eroded during the economic boom.

The traditional trade union march held in Dublin over the Mayday weekend was used to launch a new workers initiative, the ‘Stand up for your rights’ campaign. On the day itself this involved activists giving leaflets to the workers in every non-unionised retail outlet in the core shopping area of the north side.

The ‘Stand up for your rights’ campaign aims at informing workers, particularly in precarious jobs of what their legal rights are and at the same time encouraging them to join a union and collectively fight for more. The leaflet argued, “From fast food outlets, to assembly lines, from corner shops to hyper markets there is one common relationship. That is the relationship between boss and worker. These two classes have nothing in common, and a constant struggle is fought between them. Over the years we have won free education, free healthcare, the welfare state, the 5-day week, the 8 hour day and the other rights. It's time we organized to defend these rights and to win more”

The text and a link to a PDF file of the leaflet should be posted here soon but as well as listing basic rights it included pre-arranged contact numbers for the four unions organising in the retail sector – IWU, ATGWU, Mandate and SIPTU. All had been contacted in advance to confirm contact details for the leaflet and that they wanted to be listed. It also contained other help and information sources, in particular those of migrant organisations as migrant workers are often the most vulnerable to illegal levels of exploitation.

After taking part in the Mayday march and listening to most of the speeches around 30 activists moved off to carry out the leafleting. Most were union members with the majority being SIPTU members, others I knew to be members of the INTO and the IWU. One union official, Ray O’ Reilly of the IWU also took part.

While a couple of us stayed on the streets with ‘Stand up for your rights’ placards to keep track of which outlets had been done everyone else went into the shops and restaurants in small groups to hand leaflets to the workers there. Overwhelmingly they reported a very positive reaction with most workers saying thanks and only one worker saying ‘they didn’t need to know their rights’. Mr Block is still with us it seems.

We skipped premises we knew to be already unionised – for the most part this is just the larger department stores. There was also a bit of a race to get to those with a reputation for being hostile to unions – in particular McDonalds. But otherwise every premises on Talbot street, Henry Street, Mary Street, and around to Parnell street was leafleted finishing up with the new LIDL on Moore street. A short street meeting was then held at the top of Moore street before departing for some well earned pints.

Although not officially part of the EuroMay day campaign on precarity we did make use of a lot of their graphics for our posters, placards and posters. All across Europe more and more workers are finding themselves trapped in insecure, low pay jobs that offer no future but more of the same. The official trade movement struggled to organise such workers so we felt it was time for ordinary union members to start taking then initiative at reaching out.

This action will hopefully be the first of many. The campaign hopes to stage similar events in many of the new mega malls that have sprung up around Dublin, in particular the newly opened Dundrum shopping centre. Saturdays leafleting demonstrated that even quite a small number of people can have an impact. In a couple of weeks we intend to do the Grafton street area, make sure you come along.

Stand up for your rights Web site
http://www.getupstandup.tk/

Previous reports on indymedia.ie from the campaign
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69157
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69305
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69435
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69434

Precarity actions in Europe
http://www.euromayday.org/
http://www.precarity.info/

# posted by antrophe @ 3:15 AM

(0) comments


Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Round 2 of the get up stand up leafletting took place last Saturday afternoon (14th May). Round 2 of the get up stand up leafletting took place last Saturday afternoon (14th May). And while the numbers taking part were lower than round 1, which took place after the Mayday march( see http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69665), what we lacked in numbers we made up for in enthusiasm. Meetings, conferences, medical training and weddings combined to ensure that many of our activists were otherwise occupied but nevertheless those of us who did turn up distributed about 1,000 leaflets in about an hour and a half. Shopworkers in the Grafton Street-South William Street area and in the St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre were leafletted with the leaflet detailing basic workers' rights and urging them to join a trade union and stand up for their rights. We got a very positive response from everyone and the leaflets were eagerly accepted by all. And of course the fact that the sun was shining made for a very pleasant stroll along the street popping in and out of the shops. The next leafletting session will take place on Thursday 26th May when we hope to leaflet the Jervis centre, ILAC Centre and O'Connell Street. We're meeting up outside the Jervis Centre (Henry St. entrance) at 7pm and plan on following up our activity with a short meeting in the lounge of the Teachers Club (36 Parnell Square) around 9pm. This meeting will discuss ideas for taking our campaign to such far flung places as Dundrum 'Town Centre', The Square in Tallaght, Blanchardstown, Liffey Valley and various other suburban locations!! So forget about weddings etc. and come along, get involved - the more the merrier. It'll be easy to remember the date, it's the night after Liverpool are going to win the European Cup. See you there. # posted by antrophe @ 3:13 AM (0) comments Wednesday, May 04, 2005 Mayday Round Of Leafletting This is a report of a union recruitment / anti-precarity action organised for the end of the Dublin Trade Union mayday march (which actually took place April 30). Ireland traditionally has a very high rate of union membership but this has been rapidly eroded during the economic boom. The traditional trade union march held in Dublin over the Mayday weekend was used to launch a new workers initiative, the ‘Stand up for your rights’ campaign. On the day itself this involved activists giving leaflets to the workers in every non-unionised retail outlet in the core shopping area of the north side. The ‘Stand up for your rights’ campaign aims at informing workers, particularly in precarious jobs of what their legal rights are and at the same time encouraging them to join a union and collectively fight for more. The leaflet argued, “From fast food outlets, to assembly lines, from corner shops to hyper markets there is one common relationship. That is the relationship between boss and worker. These two classes have nothing in common, and a constant struggle is fought between them. Over the years we have won free education, free healthcare, the welfare state, the 5-day week, the 8 hour day and the other rights. It's time we organized to defend these rights and to win more” The text and a link to a PDF file of the leaflet should be posted here soon but as well as listing basic rights it included pre-arranged contact numbers for the four unions organising in the retail sector – IWU, ATGWU, Mandate and SIPTU. All had been contacted in advance to confirm contact details for the leaflet and that they wanted to be listed. It also contained other help and information sources, in particular those of migrant organisations as migrant workers are often the most vulnerable to illegal levels of exploitation. After taking part in the Mayday march and listening to most of the speeches around 30 activists moved off to carry out the leafleting. Most were union members with the majority being SIPTU members, others I knew to be members of the INTO and the IWU. One union official, Ray O’ Reilly of the IWU also took part. While a couple of us stayed on the streets with ‘Stand up for your rights’ placards to keep track of which outlets had been done everyone else went into the shops and restaurants in small groups to hand leaflets to the workers there. Overwhelmingly they reported a very positive reaction with most workers saying thanks and only one worker saying ‘they didn’t need to know their rights’. Mr Block is still with us it seems. We skipped premises we knew to be already unionised – for the most part this is just the larger department stores. There was also a bit of a race to get to those with a reputation for being hostile to unions – in particular McDonalds. But otherwise every premises on Talbot street, Henry Street, Mary Street, and around to Parnell street was leafleted finishing up with the new LIDL on Moore street. A short street meeting was then held at the top of Moore street before departing for some well earned pints. Although not officially part of the EuroMay day campaign on precarity we did make use of a lot of their graphics for our posters, placards and posters. All across Europe more and more workers are finding themselves trapped in insecure, low pay jobs that offer no future but more of the same. The official trade movement struggled to organise such workers so we felt it was time for ordinary union members to start taking then initiative at reaching out. This action will hopefully be the first of many. The campaign hopes to stage similar events in many of the new mega malls that have sprung up around Dublin, in particular the newly opened Dundrum shopping centre. Saturdays leafleting demonstrated that even quite a small number of people can have an impact. In a couple of weeks we intend to do the Grafton street area, make sure you come along. Stand up for your rights Web site http://www.getupstandup.tk/ Previous reports on indymedia.ie from the campaign http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69157 http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69305 http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69435 http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69434 Precarity actions in Europe http://www.euromayday.org/ http://www.precarity.info/ # posted by antrophe @ 3:15 AM (0) comments	Other Links Indymedia Workers Solidarity Movement Irish Socialist Network Union Links Independent Workers Union Irish Congress of Trade Unions IMPACT SIPTU Teachers Union of Ireland PSEU Irish National Teachers Organisation Irish National Org. of the Unemployed Irish Nurses Organisation Archives April 2005 May 2005 January 2006 Postings Leafletting Continues Round 2 of the get up stand up leafletting took pl... Mayday Round Of Leafletting Build For The Get Up Stand Up Block On The Trades ... The National Minimum Wage? Don’t moan - organise. Holiday Rights The Employment Equality Act Protecting Yourself and Others What if I am Dismissed Unfairly?
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