Trade Union Holds Event To Organise Migrant Workers
Speakers highlighted migrant workers’ vulnerability to exploitation and isolation, and stressed the role of unions in building solidarity and workplace power.
On the 13th of June, The Teachers Club on Dublin’s Parnell Square hosted a discussion on organising migrants, led by the Pan African Workers Association (PAWA), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and members of the African Centre Ireland.
Speakers highlighted migrant workers’ vulnerability to exploitation and isolation, and stressed the role of unions in building solidarity and workplace power. The event concluded with an open discussion where attendees shared experiences and called for continued local organising efforts. The IWW is one of Ireland’s more radical trade unions, but is not recognized under Irish labour law, unlike the Independent Workers’ Union, the IWU.
Research by the International Labour Organization has found that migrant workers are disproportionately represented in hazardous occupations and frequently experience wage theft, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions, and across the European Union, they are frequently exploited for cheap labour by the capitalist class, including in Ireland.
It is necessary to build solidarity between native and migrant workers so as to raise class consciousness and direct anger at those responsible for the crises faced by Irish society - FF/FG, the landlord class and their overseas partners in the UK, the EU and America.
