Why Two Years...?

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Tuesday April 03, 2007 19:57

by Hugh Murphy - Sacked by ITGWU

The Truth Will Out, But Only Because Men Are Dying.

ON THE WATERFRONT

To claim to be a Trade Union SIPTU must condemn the corruption which took place in Belfast.

After a relentless campaign which took TWO YEARS, Arthur Rafferty supported by the Sunday World, Utv Television and to a large extent indymedia has been victorious.

ON THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS, HIS UNION, SIPTU, IN THE PERSON OF JOE O'FLYNN [GENERAL SECRETARY] HAS AGREED TO BACK HIM IN HIS FIGHT FOR DAMAGES FOR CONTRACTING ASBESTOSIS.

This will put them in conflict with the previous union leadership in Belfast who became corrupt and sided with the employers against the dockers. Joe O'Flynn is attempting to set up a meeting with the previous officials to ask why this happened - and why they ordered the dockers to work at asbestos.

While he's at it he might ask them why they formed an unholy alliance with the employers to sack their own members, myself included.

And WHY they ignored an Industrial Court ruling that the dockers had no Contract of Employment and were ordered to supply them.

This meant that anyone sacked by the union / employers court could NOT be sacked. Therefore anyone deprived of their livelihood by this court was the VICTIM of a Criminal Conspiracy to deprive them of their jobs.

CORRUPTION RULED IN BELFAST. For 30 years the Dublin leadership knew this and did nothing about it. Even when the Belfast Dockers were dying they still did nothing for TWO YEARS, but eventually had to bow to pressure.

Due to the media and the perseverance of a dying man, Arthur Rafferty, they MUST face up to the criminal past of the Belfast officials.

After all this time they MUST accept that what I told them over 30 years ago is TRUE.

LARKIN and CONNOLLY would be ashamed of today's so-called Dublin leadership.

By being forced to support Arthur, this puts them in direct opposition to the previous CORRUPT union administrations in Belfast.

If the leadership in Dublin doesn't call for criminal charges to be laid against these previous Belfast officials, then they're saying we agree with everything they've done.