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From Socialist Voice (Dublin), February 2004.
Transcribed by Ciaran Crossey.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Almost two years after they were sacked, the unfair dismissal cases of the 23 sacked airport workers are due in court in the next few weeks.
The case had been scheduled to be heard at the end of January but, ironically, was delayed by strike action taken by NIPSA members in the Industrial Tribunals Office as part of the Civil Service pay dispute.
Gordon McNeill, one of the three sacked shop stewards, told Socialist Voice:
“We want the truth to come out in court and are confident that we will be vindicated. ICTS and Belfast International Airport thought they could victimise low paid workers who went on strike for a pay increase. They thought we would just go away.
“But we have kept the dispute going for two years and are determined to expose them. We want to send a message to other low paid workers that they can take on their employers without receiving the treatment that we got. As for our union, the T&GWU, we are pressing our case for a full inquiry, made up of rank and file members, into why our full time official repudiated our strike and into what we see as the lack of support we have received from other senior officials since we were sacked.”
The Socialist Party and the three airport shop stewards were attacked for the role they have played in this dispute in an article published on The Blanket website last November. The Socialist Party has replied to these charges as have the sacked airport workers. All this correspondence is now available on our website.
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Last updated: 18 July 2015