A group comprising trade union activists has said there is a compelling case for workers to support the Lisbon Treaty in the forthcoming referendum, writes Martin Wall.
Launching its campaign yesterday the Charter Group said Europe had been of enormous benefit to workers and the treaty would further improve rights.
Charter Group secretary Blair Horan of the CPSU union said in terms of workers’ rights the issues had evolved since the last referendum. He said the rights of workers to collective bargaining had been advanced by a recent judgment in the European Court of Human Rights. He also said the Government’s declaration on workers’ rights had been an important development which would assist in dealing with issues which had arisen in recent European Court of Justice judgments.
Fishermen urged to vote Yes
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has rejected claims by fishermen that the industry has suffered from the country’s membership of the EU and he urged them to vote Yes to the Lisbon Treaty as a means of advancing their cause.
Mr Martin said it was “a myth” that other EU states have taken some €2 billion worth of fish annually from Irish territorial waters and he pointed out that it was through EU supports that the Irish fishing fleet has been able to modernise. “The EU has been supportive of the Irish fishing industry – think of the support for the modernisation of the fleet – look where the Irish fishing industry was in 1973 and look what has happened in the subsequent years,” he said. Last week the IFO came out against the