Workers involved in an industrial dispute at Greyhound Waste Recycling have rejected a settlement offer, describing it as an attack on the working class people of Ireland.
Fifty-seven out of 78 striking workers voted to reject the new settlement terms.
The terms included a three and a half week redundancy pay package for workers who wish to leave the firm and a buy-out of approximately €7,000.
Greyhound said the settlement terms were “very generous” but workers said they had lost trust in the company.
Speaking at a press conference after the ballot, employee Ray Reilly said the terms were a reduction in the company’s previous offer of five weeks of redundancy pay.
He said that trust between workers and the company had broken down. He called on Greyhound to go back to the Labour Relations Commission and make an offer that could be trusted.
Audrey Ní Chinnéide, who is married to a Greyhound employee, said the strike had been “so stressful” for families living on Siptu strike pay of €200 per week.
She said that letters from Greyhound had been delivered to her home by courier at 11pm in recent days, causing her family further stress.
Representatives from People Before Profit, Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party and the United Left criticised the latest offer terms, calling them “derisory”.
The politicians called for the entire trade union movement to respond with protests and possible wider industrial action to support Greyhound workers.
Siptu held a meeting with the strikers before the vote but was not present at the press conference.
Employee Paul Murray said it had been a “long, tiring fight”, but he was willing to keep fighting.
Mr Murray is one of the workers who will appear before the High Court tomorrow morning. Greyhound is seeking the attachment of property and possible prison time for protestors it claims violated an injunction to prevent a blockade of the company’s waste collection operations.
Mr Murray said he was willing to go to prison in defence of his job.
In a statement released by Greyhound this afternoon, a spokesman said all 400 jobs at the recycling plant were now at risk because of the decision by workers to reject the latest settlement proposals.
“The vote puts both the future of the company and any future compensatory package for the workers at risk…These proposals represented the best settlement package the company could afford if it is to have a sustainable business in the future,” he said.
Now the company intends to “ensure the law of the land is upheld” by seeking damages and costs from protestors involved in “illegal blockages and activity” outside the company’s depots.
The spokesman said: “Greyhound has been reluctant to take this path, but it has a duty to protect the jobs of all its 400 employees and ensure that our 140,000 household customers continue to have their bins collected.”
The industrial dispute which began when employees refused to accept a 35 per cent pay cut is now in its 13th week
The workers and their supporters have been picketing the recycling plant in Clondalkin, which collects household waste for Dublin City Council, since June.