Argos – the shop where they not only reserve goods, they reserve some staff as well.

Stephanie Lord

Over the weekend we saw the disgraceful behaviour of those in Drogheda, Swords, Jervis Street and other outlets go without being remarked on by the media. This disgraceful behaviour was by Argos management and those who chose to disregard the picket-line outside of Argos and venture inside to engage in some festive shopping courtesy of the scab-labour that had been flown in by the management that day. I find it ironic that many in Drogheda can be up in arms regarding the impending closure of the Coca-Cola plant and subsequent relocation of production to a non-unionised plant elsewhere and then rearrange the order of their moral high ground so they are enabled to pass a picket-line in a well-publicised industrial dispute, and therefore undermine the purpose of the workers strike as a result.

It is understandable that Christmas is only around the corner and nobody wants to see a 6 year olds disappointed face because they didn’t get their Action Man, but with a little clarity it is easily seen that a child will eventually get over that. On the other hand, workers do not strike in the month of Nollaig for nothing and knowing your employment will become even more precarious as a result of taking a courageous stance, and possibly eventually non-existent is slightly harder to get over. Argos profits are up by 50% this year. Their employees are seeking a 10% pay-rise. They might be on more than minimum wage but that is still unacceptable if it is below subsistence remuneration.

The introduction of strike-breaking workers by Argos management was a despicable action, and regardless of their employment status within Argos before Saturday’s strike – they are still scab labour and this is to be expected from a company who are under pressure from IBEC to make an example of their low-paid staff so that others in the private sector do not get too inspired by it. The fact that it is socially acceptable to now cross a picket line, regardless of whether you agree with the objectives of the industrial action is astonishing. It is unthinkable (for this writer at least) to cross a picket-line whether it is Aer Lingus, CIE, Dublin Bus, Argos or workers from the Centra down the road on strike.

What makes this even more galling is that the scabs who were flown in to Argos stores showed no solidarity even as fellow workers, to those on the picket line. Nobody is quite sure how many workers were flown in, but one thing is for sure here – Argos were not going to let the cost of flying anyone anywhere be a problem and given the profits of Argos were €8.1 billion for this year, chartering a plane or paying €300 a head for last minute seats on flights is peanuts to the shopping giant. It’s quite obvious that this was an issue of breaking the strike and not doing their best by their customers. Mandate, the trade union of which most Argos employees are members of up until recently had a recognition agreement with Argos for the purposes of collective bargaining. The human resource wizards in the company have realised that they could get away with giving workers less if they did away with recognising Mandate and only went along with the National Wage agreements, another example of how social partnership agreements are only undermining the trade union movement in this state – and the sooner ICTU wake up to this the better.

As for those who crossed the picket-line and ventured into the store for their child’s Action Man, I sincerely hope that their child enjoys it. I hope that being a consumer rather than a citizen was worth it. I also sincerely hope that when they give the Action Man, they spare a thought for those who went on strike to get 90 cent extra an hour and rethink their actions next time they see a picket line and do the right thing by not crossing it.