A local Councillor says he fully supports all Unite workers striking today.
Tipperary water service workers are taking action due to what they say is continued refusal of local authorities and the LGMA to meaningfully engage with the union over its members’ concerns regarding conditions.
Tipperary Councillor Seamie Morris says all members of the Nenagh MD were unanimously in support of these workers who he says have been abandoned.
He went on to say the suggestion by Uisce Éireann that the Boil Water Notices starting today are the fault of workers is disgraceful.
“The solution’s always talks but what I will say is how dare Irish Water try and blame the staff for the Boil Water notice, they’re issuing Boil Water notices 3 to 4 times a week especially in South Tipperary, because of the fact that their own water services are not up to spec, so it is very cheeky for them to blame the fact that the water services workers are going on strike for boil water notices when their own infrastructure is failing all over the place.”
He also told Tipp FM that the workers from the local authority have been given no incentive to switch to Uisce Éireann because of the failure to guarantee their same terms of employment.
“If a person spent 23 years at local Government and then 2 years at Irish Water the redundancy would only be 2 years not 25 years, how on earth are they going to attract over any local government staff is beyond me. But also the fact that Local government don’t want them, the Local Government Management Association don’t want them, Irish Water don’t want them because they have said they will get their own staff. The most shocking thing is that no one is talking about it, the staff feel abandoned.”
