The former H.W. Wilson employees and EBSCO Publishing have reached a conclusive agreement. The ruling of the Rights Commissioner is accepted by both parties, and EBSCO Publishing has also made a contribution to the costs incurred by the campaign. The former H.W. Wilson employees hereby end their campaign. Thank you for your support.
Things have been quiet on the campaign front lately, but we’re still here. Thanks to all our loyal supporters for staying with us. Coverage of our campaign has appeared on politico.ie:
http://politico.ie/social-issues/8706-the-workers-strike-back-.html
Ebsco’s activities have also received attention from other sources:
We’ll keep you posted on new developments.
An email sent to Michael Gorrell, executive vice president of technology and Chief Information Officer at EBSCO Publishing:
Dear Mr. Gorrell
As executive vice president of technology and Chief Information Officer at EBSCO Publishing, you may be interested to learn about some of the new technologies used by businesses to conduct meetings with people in other countries without having to travel there in person.
Recently, Irish Labour Party TDs Michael Conaghan, Alex White, and Gerald Nash requested a meeting with EBSCO in order to discuss the company’s refusal to abide by the Irish Labour Court’s recommendation regarding the redundancy payments to former H. W. Wilson workers. They were told that such a meeting would not be possible because the company does not have a representative in this country and instead had to meet with EBSCO’s solicitor in Ireland.
It strikes me that the field of teleconferencing would offer many new opportunities to EBSCO to allow them to circumvent this problem. I am no expert in such matters, but I am sure that you, as executive vice president of technology and Chief Information Officer, would have no problem finding someone who could advise you.
If you do manage to set up such a system, the Wilson Pickets would be delighted to talk to EBSCO’s representatives, something that has not been possible to date.
Yours sincerely,
Colette Willis, on behalf of the Wilson Pickets
An article from the most recent edition of Look Left magazine.
An email sent to Alison Galati, senior director of customer relations at EBSCO Publishing:
Dear Ms Galati
As the senior director of customer relations at EBSCO Publishing, you may be interested to read what some of EBSCO’s customers are giving as reasons for signing our petition:
“I have always spoke highly of Ebsco, but their behavior is disappointing. Buying Wilson adds a touch of quality to Ebsco, so why not acknowledge the value these employees have provided?” – Gary Cocozzoli
“As an EBSCO customer, I find the company’s arrogance appalling and embarrassing at times. This is one of those times.” – Adrian Alexander
“I have had business relationships with EBSCO for over 30 years, and always admired their personal touch. I guess I had assumed that carried over to their employees. Perhaps it once did, but this is shameful. EBSCO should accede to the Labour Court’s recommendations! Further, as an admirer of the work of the H.W. Wilson Company, and by extension, its employees, I feel it is important for me to stand in solidarity with them. I am sorry to see that EBSCO seems to have become just another big business with only its bottom line at heart.” – Jan Samet O’Leary
These are three examples of the sentiments being expressed; please feel free to visit the petition and browse the reasons yourself to see the full range of support.
Perhaps it is time for EBSCO to give customers what they want – a corporation they can respect for doing the right thing?
Sincerely,
Colette Willis, on behalf of the Wilson Pickets.
An email sent to Sam Brooks, senior vice president of sales and marketing at EBSCO Publishing:
Dear Mr. Brooks
As the senior vice president of sales and marketing at EBSCO Publishing, you were interviewed last July about the upcoming merger with H. W. Wilson.
In the course of that interview, you were asked what would happen to the H. W. Wilson employees. Your response: “Given the transaction occurred less than a month ago, we are still in the process of getting to know employees and making decisions regarding the future.”
I’m not sure if this response was disingenuous or merely ill-informed, given that the Dublin employees of H. W. Wilson had all been told by May 2011 that we were to be made redundant.
If you would still like to get to know us, however, we would be delighted to embark on a dialogue, because we have not received any response from EBSCO Publishing personnel to our repeated requests for communication.
Please do get in touch.
Yours sincerely
Colette Willis, on behalf of the Wilson Pickets.
A letter from Gerry Adams TD, president of Sinn Fein:
Thank you for your recent mail and invite to the protest on 15th May outside the EBSCO information day.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend due to commitments in the Dáil. I am aware however that my colleague Senator David Cullinane was in attendance on behalf of Sinn Fein and supporting the workers.
I recognise that the workers at HW Wilson, who were made redundant following that company being taken over by publishing giant EBSCO, have been treated shamefully by their former Employer.
Next year, 2013 sees the 100th Anniversary of the Lockout, the most significant and well-remembered moment in Irish labour history. Yet, 2012 has been marked by an unprecedented amount of disputes involving workers being denied their redundancies, including those at HW Wilson, Vita Cortex, Lagan Brick and many, many more.
I believe that the government needs to take action as a matter of urgency to tackle the increasing trend of employers refusing redundancy payment. The government should introduce legislation to ensure that workers in this situation are not left high and dry by bad employers.
Please be assured that that Sinn Féin will continue to work for the protection of workers’ rights and to challenge this Government who have failed to protect workers and pursued austerity policies that are contributing to the mistreatment of workers by some employers.
Here’s a link to my blog that you might be interested in, and that has more material on workers’ rights. http://leargas.blogspot.com/search?q=workers
Hope this mail finds you well.
Is mise le meas,
Gerry Adams TD
Sinn Féin President
The Wilson Pickets outside the Dáil on May 15
Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague meeting the Wilson Pickets outside the Dáil on May 15.
I’m sure they’d really like it if we just shut up. When Ebsco bought Wilson’s last year, I think the last thing they expected to acquire (along with a NY head office building embellished with, we kid you not, a lighthouse on the roof!) was a bunch of vocal campaigners. To them, I guess, the Wilson Pickets have become just one big pain in the tooshie.
But we are not going to stop campaigning. There are many reasons for us to keep going. The main one being, of course, that we are right: our cause is just. And their actions, we firmly believe, are not. And we’re not the only ones who think so, judging by the support we are getting. Thank you all!
There is also the fact that we can’t afford not to continue. The money that the Labour Court recommended Ebsco pay us might not be a staggering amount if you’re, say, Michael Fingleton or Britney Spears, but to us it represents not only a fair and reasonable reward for many years of service – almost 240 years between us – but also a badly needed lifeline after almost a year of unemployment for most of us and everything that brings with it. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure comes in handy when you have legal bills to pay.
And as everyone knows, finding a job is a full-time job in itself, so all the extraordinary efforts that the Wilson Pickets members are making to further this campaign and highlight these issues for everyone are being done in between feeding and dropping kids to school, walking the dog, getting dinner on the table, trawling job sites for opportunities, doing interviews and internships, studying to improve ourselves and acquire new skills, checking in at the social welfare office and checking out at the supermarket.
And yet we are all determined to find and make the most of any time we can get. To campaign, to communicate, to share, to publicise, to empathise, to get the facts out there and get the story straight. We can’t afford NOT to pursue this campaign, not just for us but for workers everywhere who find themselves in this situation. Most of all, we want Ebsco to listen. And to pay up. And for other companies to treat their workers with the respect they deserve.
The Wilson Pickets with Gerald Nash TD outside EBSCO’s Information Day at Clontarf Castle Hotel
EBSCO Publishing has been named the silver winner in Most Innovative Company of the Year in Best in Biz Awards 2012 EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa).
EBSCO took over H. W. Wilson, made its workers redundant, and continues to market products under the H. W. Wilson brand, profiting from the hard work over many years of those workers.
It refuses to engage with these workers and ignores the Irish Labour Court’s recommendation regarding the redundancy payments they deserve.
According to the Best in Biz Awards 2012 EMEA, the word for such business practices is . . . innovative.
