Members of Unite the Union gathered in Armagh this afternoon (Tuesday) to protest the council sacking of a member, which the union has described as a ‘hostile act’.
The gathering took place at the Palace Demesne Public Park where Unite Regional Secretary, Susan Fitzgerald, addressed the crowd on the recent dismissal of a Unite shop steward.
Over two dozen council workers gathered to express their frustration at what they described as a completely unfair dismissal by the council.
Speaking to Armagh I, Ms Fitzgerald described the process that led to the dismissal as “extremely problematic” from the council’s point of view.
“They raised a number of issues with our shop steward, dropped a load of them and then stuck on one issue that we believe reveals more about the poor process in the council than anything about our member,” she said.
“The fear we have is that over the last couple of years we’ve had a number of reps that have had to deal with issues in the council that were unnecessary. We have a fear that there’s a pattern of poor behaviour by council management against trade unions in general and it won’t be tolerated.
“We wouldn’t tolerate it from an employer in the private sector and we certainly won’t tolerate it from council.”
An appeal process will be carried out into the dismissal, which Ms Fitzgerald says is an opportunity for council to “do the right thing”.
She continued: “No-one should ever have been sacked here. What we don’t want to see is a pattern emerging that looks like union-busting. They need to pull back from this position, they need to do the right thing by our member and Unite are happy to roll up our sleeves and help build better relationships with the council.
“Right now, they’re making that impossible.”
Added Ms Fitzgerald: “Our attitude is that this has been completely unnecessary. The council now need to take a look at their own processes, which are really questionable, and they need to do the right thing in the appeals process.
“In the event that if the dismissal is upheld we will be discussing very seriously with all our members about what next steps we will take to deal with that.”
Armagh I contacted Council for comment.
