CS Shake Up "Must Consider Communities and Workers"

THE West Cork Development Partnership met with local Labour TD Michael McCarthy

on Friday, 5th April, to express its concerns over plans by Minister for Environment,

Community and Local Government Phil Hogan to radically alter existing funding and management structures for community services.

 The West Cork Development Partnership currently delivers a wide range of essential community,tourism, agri-support, eldercare and employment projects across the

West Cork region.The Government’s local government reform document Putting People

First sets out an “alignment” between local authorities and LDCs that will have major impact for both workers and local community services. This alignment is due to be completed in the coming months. More than 50 Local Development Companies based throughout every county in the State currently deliver a range of quality community-based services with regard to enterprise, education and training in areas of disadvantage. Under the Minister’s plans, close to half of these companies will close.

 SIPTU claims proposals to “align” these services within local government structures also put millions of euro of European funding at risk. Speaking after the meeting SIPTU Organiser, Trevor Quinn, told Liberty: “Michael McCarthy expressed support for our view that there should be a worker representative added to the Implementation Group charged with overseeing this ‘alignment’. “Michael is chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Environment Culture and Gaeltacht, and so his voice should carry some weight. We welcome his support for SIPTU’s position on the Minister’s plans.”

 He added: “If Minister Hogan is intent on making such big decisions about our jobs and our local services the least we would expect is a process of consultation with our union about these plans and their implications for both employees and the communities

they work with.“The bottom-up approach of independent Local Development

Companies has been internationally recognised as a best practice model.

“The independent nature of these companies is also a stipulation for continued receipt of millions of euro in European rural development funding. Any change must consider the interests of communities and workers.”

 

Dublin youth projects bring campaign to the Dáil

 

Date Released: 27 March 2013
Dublin based youth workers and young people met with politicians in Leinster House on Wednesday (27th March) to discuss the impact further cuts will have on the vital work carried out by youth projects in the city.
The meeting followed the announcement that the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, is seeking to impose a further 10% funding cut on City of Dublin Youth Services Board (CDYSB) youth projects.

Sinn Féin TD, Sandra McLellan, facilitated the meeting between both opposition and Government politicians and over 40 young people.

Youth projects help guide the personal and social development of young people, particularly in areas of disadvantage. There are 70 CDYSB youth projects engaging with 28,341 young people. This infrastructure also supports 2,926 volunteers.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Darragh O’Connor, said: “Since 2009, projects funded by the CDYSB have experienced a 25% cut in funding, this has resulted in pay cuts, redundancies and a reduction in services for young people. Any further cuts are simply unsustainable.”

He added: “A recent Indecon report showed that for every €1 spent on youth work, the State saves €2.22 on other services. SIPTU members are calling on the minister, Frances Fitzgerald, to recognise the social, personal and economic benefits of youth work and reverse this cut. The union and the young people affected are committed to continuing their campaign until the cuts decision is reversed.”

Tommy’s advice to CE workers... join SIPTU!

Date Released: 21 March 2013
Tommy Byrne’s decision to join SIPTU while working as a participant in a CE scheme was instrumental in ensuring his contract was renewed.
Tommy, who works as a caretaker for the Crosserlough Community Development Scheme in county Cavan, was told that his contract would not be renewed at the end of his first year on the scheme.
He said: “I was devastated because there was no work out there and I faced the dole again. I was also in the middle of a level 3 Computer Course to upgrade my skills.
“However, I was told that only 25% of participants could have their contracts extended and that there was nothing that could be done.”
Fortunately, Tommy had attended a meeting with Noreen Parker from SIPTU’s Strategic Organising department a couple of months earlier and had signed up for membership.
He continued: “I worked in Britain for many years as a carpenter and was always in the union, so I didn’t have to think twice about joining.”
Upon hearing that his contract would not be renewed, he immediately contacted Parker and discovered that while there had been changes to the eligibility criteria for remaining on CE, he had in fact every right to an extension.
Tommy raised the issue again and pointed out that he was entitled to receive a further contract.
When he still met with resistance he weighed in with a letter from his union outlining his entitlements.
Tommy also enlisted the help of local TD, Caoimhghim Ó Caoláin, who raised the issue of entitlements for CE workers in the Dáil.
As a result, Tommy’s contract was renewed but he is keen to highlight the issue for other CE workers who may be facing a similar plight.
He told Liberty: “There is a lot of misinformation out there as to who is and who is not entitled to renew on CE.
“Being in SIPTU gave me the confidence to establish what my rights were and to insist that they were respected.”
Tommy found the experience empowering and is now looking forward to playing a bigger role within SIPTU through the newly-established Cavan District Committee.
He added: “I would urge anyone working on a Community Employment scheme to join the union – not just to ensure your own rights are protected but also to support SIPTU’s campaign to maintain CE schemes which have been under sustained attack from government cuts for the last number of years.”

Offering a media alternative to empower local communities

 

Date Released: 21 March 2013
For some, the words “community radio” bring to mind small, amateur outfits, with a narrow focus on local issues and often with a short life-span.
The reality is very different – if the experience of Near FM is any kind of indicator. Near serves north-east Dublin and is this month celebrating 30 years on the airwaves.
Near started out in March 1983 as a tiny pirate station, tucked away in a disused room in St David’s School in Coolock and has grown to become a solid fixture in Irish broadcasting, with more than 100 volunteer broadcasters and 24-hour radio output.

The Near Media Co-op – now also producing TV and web content – is one of the driving forces in a broad movement that is seeking to build a democratised or “bottom-up” media, owned and produced by ordinary people as an alternative to commercial and state-controlled media.

In listenership terms, Near compares respectably with mainstream broadcasters in its north-east Dublin catchment area, but for those whose passion and work keeps the station going, the question of how many people are listening comes second to the question: who is making the programmes?

Near’s head of radio Sally Galiana, originally from Madrid, told Liberty: “Community radio is open to anyone, but in order to balance under-representation in mainstream media, we target certain groups and help them make programmes – for example, women, migrants, older people, young people and people with disabilities.”

Galiana, who is also vice president of AMARC Europe (the European association of community media broadcasters), said: “Community radio is completely different from mainstream radio. We look at people as potential volunteers rather than as someone to sell to.

“Mainstream media delivers information to people – we let people create their own information and decide what is important.”
As part of its mission to democratise media, Near trains local people in how to make programmes. There are weekly programmes made by Polish, Croatian and Brazilian people, broadcast wholly or partly in their native language.

Since 1995, the co-op has also offered “media literacy” training in north Dublin. Near FM co-founder Jack Byrne describes media literacy as the “first step” in creating an alternative media.
“Media literacy is about understanding the hugely powerful influence of mainstream media in shaping so many aspects of our lives,” said Byrne, who at the time of Near’s founding was a shop steward with the Marine, Port and General Workers’ Union (now part of SIPTU).

He describes media literacy as an “empowerment tool” for all citizens and is currently in discussion with several trade unions to provide media literacy training.

The community radio sector is thriving, with almost 25 stations in the Republic.

A Red C survey in June 2012 found that of adults living in the catchment area of community radio stations, 34% had listened to a community station in the previous week, which translates into 307,000 listeners.

In Near FM’s case, another survey showed that 12,000 people listen to the station in any given week.

Near has also branched into television. The co-op was one of the main players in the setting up of Dublin Community Television (DCTV) in 2008.
Thirty years of broadcasting is quite an achievement, but the folks at Near FM are not resting on their laurels.

The station has just launched a new ‘citizen journalism’ scheme in conjunction with the website boards.ie, which will train people to go out and gather news.
This could eventually feed into another ambitious idea that Near proposed at a major conference it hosted this month to mark its 30th birthday, “a national, alternative news service that would bypass the mainstream media and could be shared between all of the 30-plus community broadcasters on the island of Ireland.”
Watch this media space.

Near FM broadcasts on 90.3 FM and www.near.ie. DCTV is available on NTL channel 802.
For a list of community radio stations in Ireland, see www.craol.ie

SIPTU Commence “Communities First” Lobbying Campaign

 

Activists from SIPTU’s “Communities First “campaign commenced the first in a nationwide series of meetings with public representatives in Co Leitrim on 11th March last to highlight the threat to Local Development Companies (LDC’s) posed by government plans to cut, outsource and close key parts of the community sector through an “alignment” process with local authorities.
Government back bench TD Tony McLoughlin (FG), Sinn Fein TD Michael Colreavy, Independent TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan and Fianna Fail Senator Paschal Mooney were all in attendance along with a number of local councillors to meet with board members and staff from the Leitrim Local Development Company (LDC) in the Mayflower Community Centre in Drumshanbo.
SIPTU Official Noreen Parker explained the threat to jobs and services posed by the Coalition’s plans to “align” services of LDC’s under the remit of local authorities. Job losses, the contracting out of services, and the loss of vital funding streams from the EU were all likely outcomes if government plans are not altered. She called on elected representatives to support the workers’ demands to maintain existing structures and the independent status of the LDC network. Local councillors have already given support to this issue passing a motion that Leitrim LDC should not be “aligned”with Leitrim County Council.
Donal Fox, Co-ordinator of Services to the Unemployed for Leitrim LDC and SIPTU shop steward, outlined the wide range of services provided by the Company and the crucial role it plays in the local economy with over 200 employed through Rural Social Schemes, TUS, Job Initiative and Community Employment Programmes.
Bernie Donoghue, who also works as a Co-ordinator with the Leitrim LDC stressed how the current independent structure has ensured that the company is accessible to the needs of the community.
Michael Colreavy TD spoke for many when he expressed fears as to where the current funding would end up once it is transferred from the local development company to the local authority as envisaged in the government document Putting People First.
The meeting had a positive outcome in that all four Oireachtas members present agreed to write a joint letter expressing their concern at Minister Hogan’s proposals and to revert back through SIPTU with regard to their progress on this issue.

Fears over future of community services as LCDP budget slashed

The future of vital community services are in doubt after the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DCELG) informed fifty Local & Community Development Programme (LCDP) projects that their budgets would be cut by between 7% and 11%. This cut follows the continuing decline in LCDP funding from €84.7 million in 2008 to €49 million in 2013, a cut of 42% in total.

Manus Bree, Community Worker and Chairperson of SIPTU’s Local Development Company Committee said: “LCDP delivers a range of vital supports to vulnerable communities and families who have been hit elsewhere in this budget. Older people, those with disabilities and lone parents rely on LCDP projects and services and for many it is a lifeline. These cuts are also a false economy; early school leaving, drug misuse, family breakdown and mental health problems are just some of the issues to which the LCDP programme responds. The social and economic costs that will be incurred in the future will be far greater than any savings made now.”

The LCDP programme delivers a range of vital services targeted at education, enterprise and employment, particularly in disadvantaged communities. A recent report by POBAL showed that in 2011 the LCDP programme supported 4,110 local communities groups, helped 1,121 people into employment and 5,042 into self-employment and  saw 11,393 participate in education with a further 11,781 participating in labour market training.

SIPTU Sector Organiser Eddie Mullins stated: “There are huge challenges facing community programmes in 2013, not least of which is this disproportionate budget cut and the local industrial relations issues it will cause. If we are to minimise the impact on community services there needs to be a real engagement between workers, employers and the Department.”

SIPTU Community Members at the DCTU Anti Austerity March, 24th November 2012 

Communities To Protest “Slash and Burn” Policies of Government

Thousands of Community Sector workers will play a leading role in this Saturday’s Anti-Austerity March in Dublin. SIPTU’s Communities Against Cuts campaign is mobilising workers from right across the Community sector which has seen cuts of between 35 and 50% in core funding to vital services such as childcare, disability, mental health, youth and environmental work.

Community Employment (CE) Schemes and Local Community Development Partnership Companies (LCDP’s) have been particularly badly hit with many companies struggling to survive.

According to SIPTU’s Community Campaign Co-ordinator Darragh O’Connor  “ LCDP’s created over 6000 new jobs in 2011 at a cost of just €5000 per job  compared to a cost of over €12000 for each job created by Enterprise Ireland. How can it make sense to have their budgets cut again? Many childcare CE projects are on the point of collapse because of changes made to entitlements for lone parents. A continuance of this “slash and burn” approach in this next budget will bring about the closure of many of these companies along with the loss of vital community services.”

Elaine Harvey from the Galway City Partnership explained “We are organising through SIPTU to defend our jobs and our services. On Saturday we will send a strong message to government-if you continue to cut our funding, our communities will take the fight directly to the doorsteps of the politicians who vote for these cuts. There will be no hiding place.”

The Communities Against Cuts Campaign is one of the four main organisations behind Saturdays march alongside The Dublin Council of Trade Unions, The Spectacle of Defiance and Hope and the Campaign against Household and Water Taxes. Marchers will assemble at Parnell Square from 1pm this Saturday 24^th November.