AVIVA WORKERS AND union officials from UNITE will meet with Aviva management in Dublin today.
UNITE Regional Officer Brian Gallagher said:
We will be letting them know the fury and determination of staff throughout the country.
The company announced last Wednesday that it was to cut 950 positions from its workforce of 1,770 in Ireland.
The UNITE union represents around three-quarters of these staff.
Gallagher said that every meeting the union has held since the news broke last Wednesday has voted unanimously to ballot for industrial action in defence of their jobs, and voted motions of no confidence in management.
He said that UNITE will inform the company that the ballot will commence throughout Aviva locations in Ireland within 24 hours, and that “any attempt to begin preparing for movement of roles in advance of an agreement will be strongly resisted”.
Gallagher said that UNITE believe Aviva saw the Irish jobs as expendable, and that the union is determined to prove them wrong.
Discussions have already begun with workers in the UK and further afield to appraise them of what is being done in their company’s name and in what manner.
The Irish workforce will not allow the destruction of their jobs and the placing in extreme jeopardy of a business built up over 100 years and which made over €30 million profit in the first half of the year.
On Saturday, a meeting of Aviva staff in Cork saw 200 employees voting unanimously to issue ballot papers to staff on whether to pursue industrial action.
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