Sacked Workers Recommence Hunger Strike at Trade Union

[Jolly Red Giant]

The Unite Trade Union leadership go back on their promises to pay legal fees and compensate the sacked shop stewards.

"We have learned that nothing the Unite leadership say can be trusted. Every member of the union would do well to note the way we have been lied to and fobbed off" Gordon McNeill

The three sacked airport shop stewards who called off a week long hunger and thirst strike on 11 April, after they received assurances from their union, Unite, that commitments made to them last September would be met, have resumed protest action at Transport House. In a repeat of the action that last month led to the union calling the police to remove the
protestors, Gordon McNeill this morning occupied the awning at the front of the building. Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer have said they will take his place if the union has him arrested.

The previous hunger strike ended with a promise from the union that they would pay the outstanding legal bill for the long court action taken by the sacked workers against their former employer, ICTS. Unite also said that they would make an offer of compensation to the shop stewards for the hardship which the actions of the union leadership had put them through. All this was to have been done by 30 April.

The 30 April deadline passed without any movement by the Unite leadership on any of these issues. Instead, on 8 May, the shop stewards received a letter from the union solicitor which went back on all the previous promises that had been made.

On four occasions over the last eight months the Unite leadership gave firm guarantees that they will pay the legal bills and offer compensation. Their latest letter revokes all these promises. All it offers is to continue discussions which have already dragged on for years. For the first time it introduces strings and conditions on any offer. In a recent meeting with the shop stewards, Unite Irish Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, made clear that, as a precondition for any settlement, he wanted a letter from the shop stewards exonerating himself and current General Secretary, Tony Woodley, for their role in the dispute.

Faced with this double dealing and intransigence the shop stewards can only conclude that the Unite leadership have never had any intention of resolving this dispute and have been stringing them along with false promises. They have therefore decided to begin an escalating campaign of public protest action to force the union leadership to stand by their earlier promises.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Gordon MacNeill is now in the fifth day of a hunger and thirst strike -

His health is deteriorating rapidly and visibly. A healthy person might expect to live a week or so without food and water. Gordon suffers from a heart condition and has not recovered from the previous five day hunger and thirst strike at the start of April. He has already reached a critical stage.

Gordon has made it clear that he will refuse medical treatment if he is hospitalised.

“I am going to see this through to the end. Either the Unite leadership will give me justice or I will die. That is what it has come down to. Some Unite officials have been in contact with me but all they are offering are the same assurances that they have offered countless times in the past and have then reneged on.

“The conclusion I have drawn from all this backsliding is the Unite General Secretary Tony Woodley never had any intention of giving us justice. They have not paid our legal bills as promised. They have not paid for legal representation for the Appeal case which could overturn the important legal victory we won for the trade union movement. They have not offered a single penny in compensation.

“I made clear when I started on Thursday that this would be the last protest and I am even more determined now that it will be. The onus now is on the Unite leadership to act with haste to implement the promises they have made but have repeatedly broken”

[eileen ni tarbh]

“I am going to see this through to the end. Either the Unite leadership will give me justice or I will die. ”

I'm afraid that Mr. McNeill is likely to die, since his trade union have proved themselves to be incompetent and duplicitous.

The Unite leadership will do nothing of significance, other than drawing healthy salaries off the backs of workers as readily as any capitalist businessman.

What are Unite's other members doing? Still paying Union dues? Or, if they had any balls, siphoning it off to a legal fund and proper representation for these three gentlemen?

[Jolly Red Giant]

Gordon MacNeill has been taken to hospital close to losing consciousness.

Actor Ricky Tomlinson and writer Jimmy McGovern have publically called for the UNITE trade union to carry out the promises they previously made to the men on strike.

[L'Chaim]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this action a bit drastic? I could be very wrong, but if hunger strike is to be used as a protest, shouldn't it be for bringing about change and something a bit more than losing your job?