It is my duty to raise this matter on the Adjournment, even if it may cause some inconvenience, but we must bear in mind our responsibilities in this matter.
I am very closely related to the people concerned in this dispute and, for the Minister's benefit, I wish to let him know briefly of the hundreds of people who are directly involved in the lay-off in this industry which is completely monopolised and of the indirect connections that were involved in the industry. Bearing these things in mind, it is about time something was done or that a full detailed investigation was held by the Minister, particularly because of the hardships involved on account of the lockout of these workers. Eleven men were involved who had no connection whatsoever with the dispute in question but because the chief of the firm in question was a member of this octopus organisation — the FUE — and because he was closely connected with it, these people were involved.
That is unjust and unfair; in fact, it is inhuman and I would go so far as to say that it is bordering on illegality. These men got seven days protective notice and when the seven days were up they had to get out; naturally, their fellow-workers, skilled and unskilled, had a duty to respect the livelihoods of these men and, consequently, they put a picket on the premises of Cement Ltd, in Limerick.
There were firms engaged in this dispute who were in keen competition with overseas industries and who were trying to export and who had orders and obligations outside of this country also. Because of the closure of certain industries in this country, advantage was taken of the wholesale dumping which was carried on to the detriment of some of our local industries but Cement Ltd knew that no matter what happened they would not lose custom because they had no competition and they took advantage of this fact to help to crush the demands which have been now acceded to. They also took advantage of the position to ridicule Ministers and the Labour Court as we saw in this morning's papers.
I do not know what service the FUE is giving to this country because one cannot possibly legislate nationally for any particular industry. These things must be done locally but Cement Ltd took advantage of this and held the country up to ransom. Were it not for the fact that we had sensible people in the city of Limerick, organised craftsmen, who were prepared to take their time and who were not in any way rushed into making decisions, this strike would have continued. However, because of the goodwill and the commonsense of the people, sanity prevailed, as the Minister had requested that it should, and pickets were withdrawn from Sunday night.
The FUE and Cement Ltd have refused on many occasions to negotiate with these men but the men bore this with patience and intelligence and they did not rush into any rash decision. They met this afternoon and, while a final decision has not been reached, it is expected that such will be reached some time tonight. At the moment, the matter is being discussed in Limerick, the men having gone there tonight from Dublin.
The case I wish to put to the Minister is that these things should not be allowed to continue and people who have a monopoly in any particular line ought not to put a lock on their gates, as it were, in so far as the workers are concerned. In view of the hardship that has been caused to the workers, skilled and unskilled, in this industry, I am asking the Minister to have a full and detailed inquiry into the action of this firm with particular reference to compensation to these men for the loss of work involved. If the Minister will assure me that he will set up an inquiry and if he will institute a full and detailed investigation with particular reference to Cement Limited and the action of the management there, I will be happy and the people concerned in Limerick will be happy because we know that our case is right, we know that there has been victimisation of these people and that they had not hand, act or part in this dispute. There are bigger things involved. If the Minister does this now, not alone will he be setting a headline for others but he will bring to heel the certain employers, whom he mentioned here last week in his speech, that they should show responsibility to their workers and that they should treat their workers as human beings like themselves, with their own domestic lives and all the troubles that go with them. By doing what I am suggesting he will show the country at large that never again will we have a repetition of what happened in Limerick and Drogheda.
