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/