All 76 Tesco stores were closed by yesterday's strike by 9,500 Mandate and SIPTU members. Rival retailers reported a significant increase in business as a result. There are no plans for an early Labour Court intervention. This follows a refusal by either the company or the unions to indicate a willingness to compromise during Wednesday's late night talks. In the absence of the court's intervention it seems likely next Thursday's one-day strike will go ahead.
The company may have lost up to £4 million in sales yesterday and its willingness to do so suggests it is prepared to incur significant losses to face down the unions' claim for a substantial, but unspecified, pay rise on top of the terms of the revised Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
This does not appear to have dampened workers' expectations. Mandate national official Mr John Douglas said last night: "All the stores were closed, all our members were out and there was great public support. It couldn't have gone better."
He accused the company of failing to honour a commitment given at the Labour Court to provide a formal offer on pay in writing to the unions. SIPTU national industrial secretary, Mr John Kane, also criticised the firm, saying that "no offer, as of now, has been received".
"The company keeps criticising us for refusing to ballot our members on their improved offer but they haven't given us the offer", Mr Douglas said. "If they did, we would ballot our members, with a recommendation to reject it." The company has condemned the strike as unnecessary and points out that the National Implementation Body called on the unions to withdraw the strike notice last Friday. However it is thought that the NIB call was made against the advice of senior trade union leaders, who felt the intervention was premature.
Tesco rejects union claims that it is a low-pay employer and says the latest offer is worth up to 17 per cent to some employees, on top of the PPF. The increase on offer would certainly bring Tesco's hourly rates within 10p of the Dunnes Stores rates, plus considerably better fringe benefits, such as a profitsharing scheme.
Mandate and SIPTU are pushing to bring rates nearer to those paid in large department stores such as Arnotts, or Marks and Spencer. This would mean pay rises of over £1 an hour. It is unlikely Tesco would contemplate giving even half as much without radical changes in work practices, especially for the 20 per cent of long-service staff who form the core of union members.