IRELAND: Ferry brings in union busters

On November 24, Irish Ferries sent union-busting security guards to take over its ferries in the Irish Sea. Guards boarded the Isle of Inishmore at Pembroke as passengers, then informed the Seamen's Union of Ireland that they had been ordered to take control of the ship. The company took similar action on another ferry. Irish Ferries has begun laying off seafarers and replacing them with cheaper migrant workers. Union members on the Isle of Inishmore barricaded themselves into the ship's control room. Crew members later walked off the Jonathan Swift ferry at Dublin Port after their union steward was refused permission to board the ship to explain what was happening on the other ferries.

From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.

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From GLW issue 651