Over 120,000 March Against Pension Levy and Gov’t Attacks on Workers

Today’s magnificient demonstration of over 120,000 trade unionists was a wonderful display of solidarity.
It united working class people in opposition to the Public Service Pension Levy and the other attacks the government is mounting on us in order to make workers and the poor pay for the debts of the bankers and the economic crisis.
Below is the text of a leaflet issued by the People Before Profit Alliance on the protest:-

NATIONAL STRIKE TO REVERSE THE CUTS – SACK THIS GOVERNMENT!

This government must be driven from office!

Cowen, Lenihan and Gormley want ordinary workers and the most vulnerable in Irish society pay the price for an economic crisis caused by the greed of bankers, developers and a super-wealthy elite.
The disgraceful attempt to scapegoat public sector workers and set them against workers in the private sector must be resisted.
Most public sector workers are on low or very modest incomes. They are not responsible for the property speculation, gambling and shady financial dealings that created the current crisis.
The attack on public sector workers is cynical attempt to deflect attention away from the real issue – the enormous gap between ordinary workers and a super-wealthy elite.
Many top bankers and corporate CEO’s are still receiving salaries of one €1-2 million a year. Government ministers and the very top civil servants earn over €200,000 per year. Brian Cowen gets paid more than Barack Obama!
We should not be fooled by politicians and millionaires who say: “we’re taking a 10% pay cut, so why can’t you? A ten per cent cut for a Minister on €200,000, or a bank boss on €2 million, won’t lead to suffering. For a worker on €30,000 a year it’s the difference between paying your mortgage and not.
The top 5% in Irish society have accumulated €41 billion in extra wealth over the last five years. We must claw back this wealth from the super-rich to fill the hole in the public finances.
All workers, pensioners and students must unite to say: “We are not paying for the greed of a super-wealthy elite – Tax the Rich to fund public services and save jobs.”
Today’s protest is only the first step. We must stay on the streets and take united strike action to reverse the attacks on workers and end the jobs slaughter.
Protests must continue until this government is driven from office. Opposition parties must also tell us clearly what policies they will implement to deal with the crisis.
Fine Gael, for example, has attacked the government because their cuts are not severe enough. Labour has not said clearly they will completely scrap the pension levy.
People Before Profit Alliance says:
Stop the bail out of private banks – Nationalise the banks to create one state bank.
Tax increases and levies on earnings over 100,000 and the assets of the super-rich.
Completely scrap the pension levy on public sector workers
No to cut-backs or job losses in Dublin Bus or public transport, and regulation to protect the earnings and working conditions of taxi drivers.
Public work programmes to employ unemployed workers building schools, hospitals and providing essential public services.
State guarantees for pensions of ordinary workers in the private sector.
If you want to see a real alternative to government’s and parties that only represent the super-rich get involved in the People Before Profit Alliance.

Come to our Public Meeting next Saturday March 28th at 2pm in Wynn’s Hotel, Abbey Street (See below).

(In Dublin North West) pbp.dnw@gmail.com

(National):- www.people-before-profit.org        info@people-before-profit.org

Text JOIN to 087-9090166

Latest News from DUBLIN NORTH WEST PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE 19/2/09

Latest News from DUBLIN NORTH WEST PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE 19/2/09

 

STOP THE CUTS, SAVE OUR SERVICES

Important Meeting Axis Centre Thursday 19^th February (tonight) at 8.00pm, hosted by the People Before Profit Alliance to start to bring people together for a broad-based local anti-cuts campaign

With the cut backs in the route 13/13A and other Dublin Bus routes as well as the sacking of up 300 workers on the buses, both our jobs and services are under attack.

The Public Sector Pension Levy means a wage cut of 7-10% for many workers who are in jobs that are not well paid.

Cuts in Education are trickling through and mean larger class sizes and the loss of extra needs provisions for our children.

And the writing is on the wall for Ballymun Regeneration, with the local community saddled with a broken-backed, half-completed project.

It seems that working class communities like ourselves are to be the fall guys for the financial; crisis. And while there’s billions for the bank bosses, bailing out our jobs and services is not on the agenda.

This means that local people must organise to oppose these attacks. Linking up with other communities facing similar problems can give the government a lesson in people power, just as people in Iceland forced their government to resign.

We believe a broad-based anti cuts campaign is the way to go. Not the property of any single group or individuals, but representative of all those who want to fight back against these draconian attacks upon us. All community groups, trade unionists local activists and interested residents are invited along. Come along if you would like to be part of this.

Details 862-2209 or email pbp.dnw@gmail.com or just come along at 8pm in the Axis Centre!

 

SAVE OUR BUS SERVICE: STOP THE CUTS ON THE 13/13A

Protest Friday 27^th February at 5.30pm at the Civic Offices, Ballymun

Our bus service is due to be slashed on March 1^st.

Click on poster to download PDF version, print out and display to spread the word!

The 13/13a route will lose a third of its journeys. In addition cuts in the 19, 40 and 128 are also planned. The 4/4a is being amalgamated which more than likely will mean it too will be cut back.

At a recent People Before Profit Alliance meeting in the Axis Centre addressed by bus drivers working on the 13/13A the issues were spelt out.

As a result we have called a protest for Friday evening 27^th February at 5.30pm at the Civic Offices in Ballymun to protest at the cuts.

Posters and leaflets have been produced and we could do with your help in distributing them to get the word out.

Details 862-2209 or email pbp.dnw@gmail.com or scroll down the page to read more. 

PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS LEVY IS A WAGE CUT ON WORKING PEOPLE

National Demonstration Saturday 21^st February, 2pm parnell Square Dublin (called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions)

The pension levy on public sector workers is an outrage. Many low and middle income employees who have taken out large mortgages simply cannot afford to pay it.

The levy is another name for a pay cut:

• An employee on €35,000, will pay an extra €43 a week

• An employee on €45,000 will pay an extra €63 a week.

• Private sector executive/consultant on €200,000 will pay nothing extra!

• Wealthiest 1% with €87 billion in assets continue to pay nothing at all!

In addition to this pay cut the government has welshed on the Public Sector Pay Agreement, setting aside pay increases of 6% in total. Public Service Pay relative to good employment in private sector has been reduced by up to 15%.

Public Sector Employees Are Being Scapegoated!

If we do not succeed in resisting this pay, government will feel free to impose new cuts and changes in conditions into the future.

The effectiveness of trade unions will be seriously damaged generally as in UK after Thatcher.

The Irish Congress of trade Unions has called a National Demonstration on Saturday 21st February assembling 2pm Parnell Square.

People Before Profit is urging everyone to support this demonstration to start a mass campaign of opposition, including in our view, a one-day National Stoppage, as our brothers and sisters on the continent of Europe have taken on repeated occasions.

 

NEW PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT BALLYMUN-FINGLAS NEWSLETTER OUT NOW

Today we have printed thousands of copies of a local PBP Newsletter explaining some of the issues above and other news of interest to the residents of these parts.

Can anyone help us distribute it locally (putting through letter boxes, etc)? We want to get them out quickly as they will help build for the upcoming protests. If you can please contact us:- 862-2209 or email pbp.dnw@gmail.com

Click on graphic to download PDF of Newsletter: Feel free to print it off and distribute it to friends, neighbours, workmates or anyone else.

 

GET INVOLVED

Can you spare a little time once in a while to help our campaigning work? The more people helping out, the more effective we can be. If you would like to know more contact us:- 862-2209 or email pbp.dnw@gmail.com or visit again soon the website: www.pbpdnw.wordpress.com

 

FOR LOCAL NEWS VISIT AGAIN SOON OUR REGULARLY UPDATED WEBSITE: www.pbpdnw.wordpress.com

For more background on the issues raised in this bulletin and for frequently updated news click on the Dublin North West People Before Profit Website:- pbpdnw.wordpress.com. If you have a story you would like to see put up on the site email us on pbp.dnw@gmail.com or ring 862-2209. Remember you can add a comment to any story on the website. Why not give us your opinion? Click on it today.

 

• SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE TO SEE OTHER IMPORTANT RECENT STORIES

BRL? What Regeneration?

by Paddy Haughey

Ballymun people can now see what motivated the ill fated Regeneration. Our strategic location close to the city the airport the M50 made our land valuable.

The BRL Management was prepared to stoop to any depths to clear as much land as possible. They blamed the Ballymun people themselves for the way that Dublin City Council allowed the flats public areas become a haven for drug and alcohol abusers. A former financial controller for the BRL stated at a meeting of the Breaking Ground Arts project that the community activists and volunteers had failed Ballymun and its people were lacking in initiative and enterprise and that consequently they were no longer a community that could be invested in and would be replaced by a new vibrant population. This message was circulated throughout the whole country so that they could be justified in segregating the people from the flats in substandard over crowded houses without sports and recreational facilities. They built them on the football pitches and local greens. They even closed their public swimming pool and built a leisure centre focused on profit rather than service. They allied themselves with some investors who were able to access big money and they have built some of the many luxurious private apartments and hotels to attract this new population but like the whole story of the Regeneration without any success. The Controller and Auditor General’s Report’s call for a risk assessment on the future of the whole project after pointing out that that the project should have been completed 2 years ago and that even though it was only half way there all the money was gone. This call has obviously been overtaken by the national financial crises and the Ballymun people are facing an appalling vista.

An immediate evidence of this appalling vista is that more than 1000 families will now be left in the flats for years to come and will have an enormous increase in the cost of heating and hot water. Each block of flats are to be given their own new heating system.

Youth clubs will have to vacate their basements and pay high rents for new accommodation.

Of course Dublin Bus has always left Ballymun at the end of the queue when it came to providing a public bus service. The 36, 36A and 36B provided a reasonable, even if not too reliable a service but they latched onto the Regeneration game when they introduced the 13 and 13A instead. The 13A couldn’t get down to Coultry due to the new narrow roads and the same has happened to Silloge now. In the new era of an bord snip (cutback committee) we are now going to lose over a third of our existing services.

The Department of Education also in this BRL era decided to take out the one bright beacon of light of Ballymun our Comprehensive School system of two single sex Junior Schools and a co-ed Senior School and form one co-educational school. They are like “wrong way Corrigan”. In Europe and America the numbers of single sex schools are growing annually. Co-education causes a frightening decline in the educational fortunes of boys. It is no accident that the Dept.of Education ‘Whole-School Evaluation Report’ last May on our Comprehensive School was far from complimentary.

We have seen the total disregard of BRL for the sacred memories of our patriots who signed the 1916 Proclamation and of our dead community activists, in their preference for English street names and the horse of a British Field Marshall.

The people of Ballymun cannot continue to be treated in the disrespectful way they have been and continue to be at present. The people who are elected to represent the people of Ballymun will have to become more conscious of their responsibilities to the people of Ballymun.

ALL OUT: SUPPORT THE ICTU NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION FEBRUARY 21

National Demonstration set for Feb 21

The Irish Congress of trade Unions has called a National Demonstration on Saturday 21st February assembling 2pm Parnell Square. We do need the most vigorous action from the trade union movement in the face of the vicious attacks the government is raining down on working class people. People Before Profit is urging everyone to support this demonstration which ought to be the kicking off point for a mass campaign of opposition, including in our view, a one-day National Stoppage, as our brothers and sisters on the continent of Europe have taken on repeated occasions. Below is reprinted the ICTU statement, modest enough in tone, but important nonetheless. Tell your workmates, lets have lots of community organisations as well.

Email your friends with a link to this page to tell them of the action, right click on this link and paste it into your email

Congress has contacted all affiliated unions advising them of the Executive Council decision to call a National Demonstration for February 21, in Dublin.

General Secretary David Begg pointed out to affiliates that, following consultations with member unions, it was decided to concentrate resources and attention on one major demonstration in Dublin, on Saturday, February 21, as the first step in a rolling campaign of action.

The march will set off from Dublin’s Parnell Square at 2pm.

As this is the first step in the campaign, it is expected that other action will follow around the country, as required.

Congress has also published a 10 point plan for national recovery – There is a Better, Fairer Way – which sets out the key elements of the campaign platform. The plan outlines 10 key initiatives to address the current crisis, including:

• Protecting Jobs and Tackling Unemployment
• The Banking Crisis and the Public Interest
• Competitiveness
• The Pay Agreement
• Fairness & Taxation
• Restoring Consumer Confidence
• The Public Sector Pension ‘Levy’
• The Private Sector Pension Crisis
• Employment Rights
• National Recovery Bond

Further information on the February 21 National Demonstration will be posted here as it becomes available.

CALLING ALL ACTIVISTS, TRADE UNIONISTS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS IN THE BALLYMUN AREA

STOP THE CUTS!

BALLYMUN ANTI CUTS CAMPAIGN
THURDAY 19TH FEB 8.00PM AXIS CENTRE BALLYMUN

Working class people in the area are being targeted by the government to pay the price of the economic crisis.

Public Sector workers–many among the lowest paid in the country–are facing a Pensions Levy that will see their wages hit to the tune of 7-10%.
On March 1st Dublin Bus plan to sack 160 drivers and slash bus service (including cuts of up to a third on the 13/13A route)
Ballymun Regeneration has now run out of money and the project will grind to a halt, leaving our community broken-backed witha half completed scheme.
Parents with young families face the additional burden of cuts in the under-five allowance.
Meanwhile the bank executives are being thrown billions of public money.
We need a community response that links up with bus drivers, nurses and other public sector workers to fight these unfair attacks.
We invite all community activists, representatives from community groups and the voluntary sector, trade unionists and others from the area to come to this meeting to launch a broad-based Ballymun Anti Cuts Campaign.
Come along on Thursday 19th February at 8.00pm in the Axis Centre and lets pull together to reverse the cuts.
Details 01-862-2209

Tel 862-2209 for details

RESIST THE PENSION LEVY ! NATIONAL PUBLIC MEETING OF TRADE UNIONISTS IN PUBLIC SECTOR SATURDAY, FEB 14,

RESIST THE PENSION LEVY !
ICTU must call a One Day National Stoppage to begin a real campaign!
NATIONAL PUBLIC MEETING OF TRADE UNIONISTS IN PUBLIC SECTOR SATURDAY, FEB 14,
Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square, Dublin 11.30 to 2.30
Speakers (personal capacity) John Kidd, Convenor of Unions, Dublin Fire Brigade Jo Tully, Nurse Shop Steward (INO) Kieran Allen, President Education Branch (SIPTU) Roisin Cronin, Sec Dun Laoire Branch (IMPACT) Terry Kelleher, Executive Member, (CPSU) Ronan Leyden, Chair DIT Branch (Unite/Amicus) Marie Humphrey, Vice-Chair, Dublin City P.P.(TUI) Joe Duffy, Dublin Northwest Branch (INTO) Christy Maginn, Standing Committee member, (ASTI) Denis Keane, Executive Member (CPSU) Gregor Kerr, Dublin North Branch (INTO)
Chair: Paddy Healy, Former President, TUI

Save Our Bus Service: Ballymun Protest Friday 27th Feb, Assemble 5.30pm Ballymun Civic Offices

Timetable goes up in smoke

Despite the snow and sub-zero temperatures, People Before Profit had a lively, informative and successful meeting on Thursday 5th in Ballymun.

Eugene and Rory, two NBRU reps from nearby Harristown who work the 13/13A route, filled us in on the some of the implications of the cuts that the Dublin Bus management are planning to implement from 1st March.

Well-known is the scandalous fact that 160 drivers will be sacked on that date across the city and cuts in routes will be implemented. What it will mean for those in Ballymun and its estates of Poppintree, Sillogue, Coultry and Shangan makes your hair stand on end.

Dublin Bus plans to cut three buses from the 13/13A. But this is not just three journeys. Each bus is on the road most of the day. It represents three duties (or days work by drivers). Each driver will do three round trips each working day or six scheduled departures (three there and three back). So a bit of maths:- 3 buses times 3 drivers times 6 scheduled departures equals 54 trips from Harristown to Merrion Square or from Merrion Square to Harristown taken away. The current published Dublin Bus timetable for the 13/13A shows a total of 160 odd departures. So we are losing fully one-third of our service! If you don’t believe me look up the 13 timetable on http://www.dublinbus.ie/your_journey/viewer.asp?route=13  and subtract 54 from the current published timetable.

Fight the Public Sector Pension Levy

The pension levy on public sector workers is an outrage.
Many low and middle income employees who have taken out large mortgages simply cannot afford to pay it.
The levy is another name for a pay cut:

• An employee on €35,000, €43 a week
• An employee on €45,000 will pay an extra €63 a week.

This pay cut is on top of a 1 percent levy on gross income and the deferment of all wage rises due under the current partnership deal.

13 Bus service to be slashed: Don’t let them away with it!

Let's organise to fight the cuts!

Childcare Protest- Scrap Subvention, Provide Adequate Funding

Childcare Protest- Scrap Subvention, Provide Adequate Funding
Childcare Protest
Tuesday 9th December at 1pm
SIPTU, Liberty Hall, Dublin

SIPTU and the Dublin Inner City Providers Network are uniting workers, employers, parents and children by calling for an end to the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme.