Bin men vote to end strike

February 1983

The strike which has left Bray without a refuse collection for the past three weeks has ended. Workers voted in favour of a return to work after considering a Labour Court recommendation. The collection service will resume this week. The recommendation centred around two outstanding issues, eating on site and travelling allowance, and the Labour Court recommended that these be granted.

A spokesman for the unions involved, the ITGWU and the AGEMOU, refused to say if the decision to end the strike was carried by a large majority.

The strike had received the full support of the ITGWU Bray Branch this week and members, at a full committee meeting, took a serious view of the business element in the town who broke the strike and certain tenants organisations who, they felt, had played right into the hands of the Department of the Environment, who were eager to introduce payment for the collection of bins.

A union statement said: ‘ These people have now set a precedent by paying strike breakers for doing work normally carried out by the Bray Urban District Council. We have supported the strike committee in our actions to date.’

They explained that the reasons for the strike, were not, as had been assumed, refuse issues, but concerned five major points. Namely - comparability with Dublin County Council, travelling and eating on site allowance, £7.50 rationalisation which all the local authority workers carried.

For the past few years, the branch has been aware of this situation and the members say that strike action was taken as a last resort. ‘Action of this nature is not taken lightly on any occasion,’ he said.