Irish Cement are ‘starving’ workers

Management at Irish Cement have been accused of attempting to “starve people to go back to work”, as some 50 men in Limerick maintain their picket for the fourth week of the official strike.

Staff locally say they are now attempting to freeze their mortgage payments with the banks, as they are living on less than €200 strike pay per week.

The staff at the Castlemungret plant are owed between €5500-9500 each in increments, with the Labour Court recommending five months ago that the sum be paid.

However, the company has refused to do so, saying that staff must first accept a wage cut of up to 23%, which has been described as “savage” by one of the unions representing workers.

Karan O’Loughlin, regional organiser of SIPTU, told the Limerick Leader: “They going to try and starve these people back to work.”

Ms O’Loughlin said the three unions involved between the Limerick plant and the company’s head office in Platin, Louth, have not been involved in discussions with the company in recent days, “as they [Irish Cement] seem prepared to stick it out.”

Irish Cement is a subsidiary of CRH, one of the world’s leading building materials companies.