Fighting for union rights & better pay
Strike at the Early Learning Centre

WORKERS AT the Early Learning Centre Toy Shop, in Cork, 
have been on strike since early December.  Management at 
the Cork store, have refused to recognise the workers' union, 
Mandate, or to negotiate on pay and conditions.  So far the 
strikers, all women, have been able to maintain a highly 
effective picket on the shop.  Workers Solidarity spoke to the 
workers in January as the sales got underway.  The shop was, 
once again, empty of customers.

-> Over the busy Christmas and New Year period, you have 
had a big effect.  Few people seem to have passed the picket 
line?

It has been massive.  Yeah.  We reckon that there has been 
over a quarter of a million in losses at the shop, for the sake 
of #150 divided by six workers, a week.  We're out nearly five 
weeks now and it's possible that something will be 
happening in the Labour Court.  Hopefully they'll do 
something in our favour, and that it won't be just for the 
employer.  

-> That's the problems with the Labour Court.  

lt's a problem getting anything there.  It's a challenge.  

-> How many of you are out on strike?  

Well, there's six of us that work all the time in there, 
permanently, but two of the staff that were taken on for the 
Christmas came out also, because they wouldn't pass a 
picket.  

-> What are you looking for?  

Our main crib, really, is that in six years we've got on 
average only 10p per year rise on our hourly rate.  If you 
came into this job tomorrow, even with no qualifications 
and with no experience in retailing, you would get the same 
money as any of us.  Even those of us who are here for six 
years.  As well as this, we're two pounds an hour underpaid 
to the trade rate in Cork, that's the union rate.  We joined 
the union in May, and the company won't recognise us.  
They refuse to recognise the union.  
Basically, there is to be no pay increase this year, and we've 
been told by our own manager, inside, that we won't be 
getting the next one until 1997.  More than likely that will be 
under ten pence an hour again.  On top of this, we're doing a 
lot more than we should as shop assistants.  
They expect us to unload the articulated lorries that pull up 
with supplies.  There could be anything between seven and 
ten pallets a week.  That stuff has to be taken upstairs.  We 
have to clean the place and also do the lock-up and security.  
We're asked to read course books - distance learning books - 
also, once a month.  There's nothing extra for any of that.  

-> There's also the issue of pensions?  

All the British workers are in their pension scheme.  We're 
here six years.  They say it's very hard for an Irish pension 
company to take us on and that the tax system here is a bit 
different to theirs.  Excuses.  Being fobbed off again.  
Also, everything is set by sales targets and they're set 
artificially.  They've opened shops in Limerick and 
Waterford recently, lets say, on both sides of us here in Cork.  
So in Cork, obviously, we've lost customers to both 
Waterford and Limerick - people that would previously 
have shopped here.  But, then, they keep upping the targets 
for this store here, which means you can't achieve them.  
You don't get a bonus, you don't get a wage increase, because 
you're not making this target all the time.  But the target has 
never actually come down, even though they've opened 
these other stores.  No allowance is made for that.  That kind 
of thing.  

-> Who is setting these targets?  Is it management in the 
shop in Cork?  

Personnel management within the stores itself.  It would 
actually be set from Swindon in England, at Head Office.  
They set them for each individual store.  Each shop gets a 
budget every year to work through.  That's being kept down 
all the time.  Bonuses come from that.  You get nothing as a 
result.  
I got one bonus - #8 for a year's work, and my next one was 
#32 for another year's work, before tax and PRSI!  You get 
nothing at Christmas, just one card between everybody in 
the shop.  A mass-produced card.  Your name isn't even 
mentioned on it.  

-> And what about The Early Learning Centre Toy Shops?  Is 
it a big company?  

There's two hundred and nine shops in the chain.  They are 
a multinational.  

-> You mentioned they had other shops in Ireland?  

They have a massive problem with staff turnover 
everywhere.  It got so bad in England that they had to an 
'Exit' interview - which means you have to give your 
reasons for why you are leaving.  They know there is a 
problem.  But they don't want to listen either.  Look at the 
reasons we have here.  We're here six years.  The job 
situation here is different to in England.  You can walk out 
more easily there.  It doesn't work like that in this country.  
You just have one job.  

-> The picket has been well supported by the public.  What 
other support have you got?  

It was a very bad time to go out.  Christmas is a very rushed 
time of the year.  And, in fairness, people from Marks & 
Spencer came over to us with collections and things like 
that, and we really appreciate that.  Dunnes Stores and 
Roches Stores staff also held collections at Christmas for us.  
We appreciate that.  We also like to thank the people from 
Socialist Worker, who've been great bringing coffee and tea.  
And even a few people in the street - it may only be a pound 
or two - but they say, here get a cup of coffee.  Fantastic.  It 
was worth a million pounds to us.

You are forbidden to join the picket

SHORTLY AFTER the strike began at the Early 
Learning Centre, workers at the nearby Marks & 
Spencer (M&S) branch, on Patrick's Street in Cork, 
said they would join the picket during their lunch 
break to show their support for the strikers.  
Management at the Early Learning Centre found out 
about this.  They contacted their own Head Office in 
Swindon, who, in turn, contacted M&S's Head Office, 
also in England.  M&S in England then sent a memo 
to the M&S shop in Cork ordering the workers there 
not  to join the picket at the Early Learning Centre.  
Who says the bosses don't stand together?  The M&S 
workers, in Cork, told their own management where 
to get off - they joined the picket!  

