IMPACT has given €10,000 to an ICTU support fund established to help 70 Dublin workers locked out by Greyhound waste management. The workers, who are members of Siptu, are surviving on €200 a week strike pay after the company refused to let them work unless they accept a 35% pay cut.

IMPACT’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) approved the donation yesterday (Thursday). The CEC noted that IMPACT had strongly opposed the privatisation of Dublin’s refuse collection, correctly predicting that it would lead to higher charges, poorer service and an erosion of workers’ rights. The CEC agreed to explore possible campaigns to bring privatised services like this one back into public control.

James Burke, one of the Siptu members on the picket line in west Dublin, was seriously injured after being hit by a van at the depot on Wednesday. Siptu says this was the third such incident since the dispute began.

In a letter to unions, ICTU general secretary David Begg said that the company’s treatment of its workers was intolerable. “For the sake of workers everywhere this behaviour must be effectively opposed. It is imperative that the whole trade union movement should join this cause,” he said.

Members of all unions in the Dublin area have been encouraged to complain directly to Greyhound about how it’s treating its workers, and to sign a petition calling on Greyhound to stop using strikebreaking tactics and negotiate with staff.