Attended a public meeting and march for workers at Marine Terminals this morning. This company employ people across both the North and Southside of Dublin with a large concentration of them in the East Wall and North Wall part of Dublin Central, right beside Dublin Port.
I wanted to support this protest. It was an official strike supported by SIPTU. I met the General Secretary of SIPTU, workers and local residents involved in the issue and will do what I can to help to help. In essence, the issue appears to be the unwillingness of Marine Terminals to work with the LRC or other institutions to come up with an agreed plan with their workers. The other political parties that were there consisted of the Socialist Party, Sinn Fein and Eirigi (off shoot of Sinn Fein).
It’s essential that parties of the centre be represented at these issues. Otherwise we abandon issues like these to political parties that can lead the people up a cul de sac. I did not agree with the shouts of some marching regarding ‘British scabs out’. This kind of stuff is the last thing that an open small economy like Ireland can engage in. However the overall cause is one that must be dealt with, which is to ensure that workers are fairly dealt with in times of sudden and large change.
Then spent the afternoon catching up on constituency work in the office.