Organising Immigrants: State Policy and Union-Organising Tactics in the Republic of Ireland

One of the effects and symptoms of economic globalisation has been a worldwide increase in migration (Borjas et al. 1996; Castles 2002; IOM 2006; Massey 1999; Rodrik et al. 1997; Salasar-Parrenas 2001; Stalker 2000; Taran and Geronimi 2002). Ireland, once regarded as a country of emigration, is now an economy dependent on the labour of non-Irish workers (CCI 2001; Mac Einrí 2001; Ruhs 2005). There are two divergent perceptions of non-Irish workers in Ireland. On the one hand, migrant workers are highly skilled and central to Ireland’s economic boom of last decade. On the other hand, however, migrant workers are often viewed as a source of cheap labour, easily disposable and to be found primarily in the tertiary labour market. In Ireland the issue of immigrant worker rights has received considerable attention in recent years, not least in the high-profile disputes concerning the exploitation of non-Irish workers at GAMA and Irish Ferries. These disputes are important contextual events that set the scene for this chapter. Immigrant workers employed by GAMA International, a Turkish construction company, went on strike in May 2005 for over seven weeks because the company withheld workers’ wages (illegally) in a Dutch bank, without their consent or knowledge. The Irish Ferries dispute brought the issue of migrant worker rights and state immigration policy to the forefront of public debate.