By Joe Higgins: from The Daily Mail, February 3, 2009
Why did workers all over this country cheer on the staff of Waterford Crystal last Friday evening when they occupied their workplace in reaction to the cynical and callous actions of the Receiver in summarily sacking them?
Because working people, whether they are in the private sector or work for public bodies, are heartily sick of being dumped upon in the current crisis , for which they bear no responsibility whatever, and felt, ‘Well, it’s time someone stood up and fought back.’
The story of Waterford Crystal is, in many ways, a microcosm of what is happening in this economy and indeed internationally. We have a group of workers who have given sterling service to a company, some for up to four decades. Their skills and imagination propelled the name of the crystal they produced, to world fame because of its quality and beauty.
However, in the hands of billionaire investors and their bankers, ‘Waterford’ becomes a commodity to be leveraged and gambled with, without input or control by the workers who made it what it is.
So Bank of America puts in a Receiver, or as it would be put in the United States, started bankruptcy proceedings. What does Bank of America care about the beauty of crystal made in Waterford, about the workers who create it or about the wider community in the city of Waterford who rely on it? ‘Waterford’ to the bankers is merely a brand to be flogged off to whichever group of vulture capitalists believes it can speculate on it for a quick profit.
Hence the callous way the workers of Waterford Crystal were treated last Friday. Imagine having dedicated all your working life to a company and then to learn you are being sacked from bouncers hired to throw you on the scrapheap by the bankers who speculated on your life’s work!
If a farmer callously kicked out onto the public road, a dog that had given years of loyal service, he would be scorned by his neighbours. But when an accountant from a ‘prestigious’ firm, Deloitte and Touche, acting as a hired gun for the Bank of America treats dedicated workers in a like manner, there is not a word of condemnation in official circles.
Where are the outraged, foot high headlines decrying the barbarous treatment of Waterford workers last Friday? Truly the capitalist market place is a brutal institution and brutalises those who operate it and profit from it.
There is an irreplaceable treasure trove of craftsmanship, skills and experience embodied in the current cohort of men and women workers in the Waterford plant. It would be criminal if this invaluable accumulation is thrown away by the closure of the operations in Waterford or reduced to a meaningless rump, simply for the sake of cynically claiming that glass produced elsewhere is part of the ‘Waterford brand’.
Recently on RTE a representative from the Kilkenny Shop in Nassau Street, Dublin reported a very strong demand for Waterford glass. World renowned designer, John Rocha, who has collaborated with the craftspeople at Waterford for over a decade, also told RTE yesterday of the enormous worldwide standing of what is produced in Waterford.
It is clear that there is a future for these products to be in demand in Ireland and abroad and therefore, short term decisions to destroy manufacturing in Ireland because of the craziness in the financial and stock markets should not be tolerated.
There is also the important place that Waterford Crystal has in the tourism industry in the South East.
Waterford Glass should be nationalised and developed as a publicly owned company with the workforce brought to the very heart of the management and running of the company. On this basis it would be entirely possible to design and produce products which ordinary people could afford and would want.
It should be noted that the sale of goods such as those Waterford workers produce, was seriously impeded in Ireland by the profiteering in the housing market which caused an inordinate amount of younger workers’ income to be committed to crippling mortgage payments. This was another destructive side, but unreported, to the orgy of profiteering carried on in the housing and banking industries with the full support of the Fianna Fail/PD government and which has now crashed the economy.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has already demanded the nationalisation of the banks in response to the financial crisis. Manufacturing industry is as important as the financial sector. More important actually, as it is the basis for the creation of the wealth which banks gamble with. If it is to be consistent the Congress should now seek to have Waterford Glass taken into public ownership also to safeguard the jobs depending on it. There would be huge support among working people generally for this.
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