Dear Michael

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

Support from Terry Eagleton

The Wilson Pickets are honoured to have received the following letter of support from Terry Eagleton:

The arrogance of EBSCO Publishing, in refusing to talk with those it has deprived of their livelihoods, will appal all supporters of civil rights.  Multinationals which stamp on people’s rights in their obsessive pursuit of profit need to be brought to book.  Such corporations generally appeal to law and authority — unless, of course, authority rules against them, as in the recent recommendation of the Irish Labour Court, in which case they insolently ignore it.  Those who refuse to take this insolence lying down are worthy of the most loyal support.

Terry Eagleton

Fellow of the British Academy, Honorary Doctor of Letters (National University of Ireland) and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Universities of Lancaster and Notre Dame.

Phase Two

A week on from our protest outside EBSCO’s Information Day in Dublin, we feel it was a great success.  We boosted our profile, earned media coverage, enlisted the support of numerous politicians, and received huge encouragement from the online community.

We will continue our efforts to publicize our case in Ireland, particularly in relation to the wider issue of companies ignoring the Labour Court’s recommendations, but now it is time for the next stage in our campaign:  the United States.

We have already written to college and university libraries around the United States and we are enormously heartened by the wonderful response from individual librarians, many of whom have signed our petition.  We will be broadening that outreach to include public libraries and business libraries.

Our next step will be to contact U.S. unions to build on the incredible union support we have received in Ireland.  We will also be contacting media outlets, Irish-American groups, politicians, and online communities.

The victory of the Vita Cortex workers has given us fresh hope, and the encouragement of our supporters has renewed our fighting spirit.

We will prevail.

The Wilson Pickets outside the Dáil.

Innovative Business Practices

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.

A Chorus of Support

More supporters speak out on the petition:

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

While EBSCO has been a respected firm for its long-term customer service reputation it has begun to deteriorate over the last few years as they vertically integrate. I find this situation with the receipt of an Irish tax rebate and then refusal to abide by the court to compensate displaced workers to be very poor corporate policy, just a way to grab more funds at the expense of workers.   – John McGinty

If companies are allowed to get away with ignoring Labour Court rulings, Irish workers will be in even worse straits than they are already. It’s a dangerous precedent for other multinationals.   – David Edwards, senior lecturer in history at University College Cork and a member of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

People who give years of service to a company deserve a decent redundancy if let go. Multinationals must be vigourously challenged when they shirk their responsibilities.   – Ken Reid

I think the action is totally justified. The Wilson Pickets (Protesters) are opposing a cynical refusal by managment to reward workers for their hard work and loyalty by giving them a decent level of redundancy payment. No-one should accept the type of corporate mind-set that is increasingly putting profits before fellow-feeling. Good luck WPs.   – Peter North

Another Letter to EBSCO

A letter sent to CEO Tim Collins of EBSCO from Brendan Ryan TD:

Dear Mr Collins,

I am writing to you on behalf of the former employees of HW Wilson in Dublin who were made redundant following the purchase of HW Wilson by Ebsco last year. These workers are seeking an enhanced ex-gratia payment in addition to the statutory entitlements they received in their redundancy payments. The workers contend that this practice is an industry norm and, while I acknowledge that Ebsco maintains that there is no industry with which to make such a comparison, this contention was supported by the Labour Court who recommended that ex-gratia payment be made to the workers.

These workers gave on average thirteen years of service to a company and were made compulsorily redundant following its closure. I would urge you to play fair by these workers and to respect the recommendation of the Irish Labour Court. I would especially urge you to engage with the workers on this matter as your failure to do so thus far seems to reflect a complete lack of respect for the men and women who gave years of service in good faith to HW Wilson.

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Sincerely,
Brendan Ryan TD

Just the Facts

This campaign is, apparently, being “monitored,” and if anything of “a defamatory nature” is said, “there will be consequences for those responsible.”

Luckily for us, we have done nothing but state the facts of the matter and call on EBSCO to abide by the Labour Court recommendation.

In addition, if we fail to undertake not to protest next Tuesday, it may be necessary to “seek injunctive relief.”  It seems ironic that the Irish courts would be called on to prevent us from highlighting EBSCO’s decision to ignore the Irish Labour Court.

As for the implication that we, as Irish citizens, would be prevented by a multinational corporation from holding a peaceful protest on public property to communicate our position on this matter, well, ironic is not the word.

Our protest will proceed as planned on May 15.  See you on Tuesday, EBSCO.

Former H. W. Wilson Workers Protest for Redundancy Payment

A press release issued today to Irish media outlets:
Flouting of Labour Court Recommendation Follows Company Takeover

Former workers at the Dublin headquarters of the H.W. Wilson Co. will stage a demonstration on May 15 at Clontarf Castle, where Ebsco Publishing is holding an information day.  Forty H.W. Wilson employees were made redundant in July 2011 when Ebsco acquired the company and shut the Dublin office.

In January 2012, the Labour Court recommended a redundancy package of four weeks pay per year of service, but the company is refusing to pay any more than the statutory minimum of 2 weeks per year of service.  Ebsco has already recouped 60% of the statutory redundancy packages from the Irish state and still publishes and sells products under the H.W. Wilson brand.

H.W. Wilson was a century-old American publishing company that specialised in high-quality materials for libraries and universities.  Ebsco is the multinational that provides Ebscohost, the most used premium research service in libraries and other institutions worldwide.

The former employees, who worked at H.W. Wilson for an average of 13 years, are now engaged in a publicity campaign to highlight their situation.  The campaign can be followed on Facebook (WilsonPickets), on Twitter (@WilsonWorker1), and on a campaign blog (wilsonpicketdotcom.wordpress.com).  People can also register their support by signing an online petition.

‎”Ebsco seem to have assumed that Irish workers and Irish institutions could be ignored without consequences. Their mistake was to underestimate the spirit of the workers and their many supporters at home and abroad,” says former HWW worker Tom Dwyer.

“All we want is for Ebsco to abide by the Labour Court decision.  When a company behaves as Ebsco is doing now, it disrespects Irish institutions, Irish workers, and the traditionally close relationship between America and Ireland,” remarked former HWW worker Aoife O’Carroll.

Commenting on communications that the former  H.W. Wilson workers have received from Ebsco’s legal representatives, Colette Willis, another former HWW worker declared  ‎”It is outrageous that a company ignoring Irish practice and the Irish Labour Court has threatened to issue injunctions against us for engaging in a peaceful protest on public property.”

Lawyer Up

These days, if you’re a David planning to battle a Goliath, a slingshot just won’t cut it: you need to legal up. Big time. Because nowadays giants don’t get to be giants, it seems, without a few lawyers behind them. Or at least that is what we are discovering.

Ebsco doesn’t like our campaign calling on it to uphold the Labour Court recommendation in our favour. But despite repeated efforts to try and talk directly with management, we haven’t heard this from them; we’ve heard it from a lawyer. It doesn’t much like the idea of us protesting at all, in fact – and yes, I am paraphrasing the lawyer here. It doesn’t like it one bit. But lucky for us, while it may not have an amendment to its constitution enshrining the right to free speech as they do in America, Ireland has something far more valuable that guarantees people a voice: an inherent, built-in sense of fair play that goes to the heart of our culture and what we believe is right – and wrong.

Companies who pay statutory redundancy and then receive 60% of it back as a rebate paid from tax revenue from workers claim that they are meeting their legal requirements. Sure, of course they are. But that’s not all the Wilson Pickets want them to do. They want them to show the proper respect to an Irish court that everyone knows is underpinned by that Irish sense of fair play. There’s a reason that Labour Court recommendations aren’t legally binding. It’s because everyone involved is supposed to value above all else the sense of fair play that is at the heart of it, and to make decisions and take actions that respect and reflect that sense of fair play.

“Meeting your legal requirements” shouldn’t ever mean a refusal to even think about doing anything else – anything more. Fair play means listening to people, taking on board their views and having a dialogue – a real exchange of views, no matter how different they may be to yours. Fair play means respecting people – often especially when you don’t agree with them. Fair play also means to play fair. The alternative is to play dirty. The Wilson Pickets have played fair every step of the way and will continue to do so – because we want to, not because of anyone telling us how to act.  But which way will Ebsco play?

Named and Shamed

On Wednesday, May 2, Mick Wallace TD spoke comprehensively in the Dáil (the Irish Parliament) about the former H. W. Wilson workers and EBSCO’s refusal to abide by the recommendation of the Irish Labour Court.  Unfortunately this clip is not compatible with Macs:

http://media.heanet.ie/oireachtas/asx.php?Channel=Dail&Date=20120502&StartTime=10%3A40%3A20.000&Duration=00%3A02%3A23.000