Siptu and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will not suspend their campaign to renew a mandate for strike action unless new terms “worthy of consideration” for a national partnership agreement emerge, the union’s general president has said.
Speaking at the start of the union’s centenary conference in Tralee this evening, Jack O’Connor said he was not suggesting for a moment there was “some kind of pain-free or risk-free formula” for overcoming current difficulties.
“Indeed, we believe there is no viable alternative to an agreement between all parties on a fairer, better way.
“However, we are not talking about woolly words and cuddly concepts like the myth of social partnership which has been shown to provide a surplus of access and a deficit of influence.
“It is past time to call a spade a spade. We are talking about a clear and transparent agreement between parties representing different interests in the economy and in society. Moreover, we do not envisage a framework for sacrifice to facilitate a return to business as usual. There must be a clear and transparent sharing of the burden on the basis of ability to contribute, and that means those who have most must contribute most.”
He said the union refused to succumb to the “disingenuous representation” of the issue in terms of a conflict between workers in the private sector and those in the public sector and those dependent on welfare.
“We insist on inconveniently highlighting the omission of the wealthy from this equation, and we insist on pointing out the pernicious purpose of the strategy of dividing worker against worker while they escape scot- free.”
Criticising Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan for “dismissing” the concerns of workers at talks with Ictu earlier this year, he added: “While Mr Lenihan could not find resources to assist ordinary PAYE taxpayers struggling with the consequences of the loss of their jobs, their pensions and their over priced homes, he could find billons to prop up money clubs for developers and issue an IOU for €54 billion in the name of the Irish taxpayer to socialise the toxic debt recklessly incurred by our bankers.”
Mr O’Connor said he wanted to make it “absolutely clear that it is the decided position of Congress and of our own National Executive Council that there will be no suspension of this campaign again unless and until terms worthy of consideration by union members emerge”.
Mr O'Connor said there had been "attempts to rewrite history by apologists for the rich elite in society".
He said their main objective was to remove "inconvenient truths" from the record and "divide workers in order to make them pay for an economic crisis not of their making". Regulators had, he said, "looked the other way when the crisis was developing" and were now being replaced by practitioners of "hit-and-run economics, driving the nation towards another crash".
Earlier today, Siptu rejected a call by business representative group Ibec for a pay freeze and said it was time for employers to "make a contribution" to economic recovery.
Responding to the employers' call for a 12-month pay freeze, Mr O’Connor said: "Ibec does not seem to have copped on that the game has changed. We are fed up hearing for the last 12 months what is being demanded of workers as a contribution to national recovery.
“What we want to know is what employers’ organisation and their constituency are going to contribute, because the wealthy and the people at the top of society have contributed nothing yet.”
However, Ibec director general Danny McCoy said his organisation was repeating its call for a pay freeze as the labour market has "seized up", with unemployment at "frightening proportions".
He added that the lodging of pay claims from 2008 were "an unnecessary distraction".
Responding to Mr O’Connor's questioning of Ibec's commitment, Mr McCoy said employers were attempting to keep their businesses going and keep people employed amid difficult economic conditions and pay claims being lodged against them.
Calling for "realism and fairness", Mr McCoy said: "What we need now is people to pull together and draw up a programme for national recovery."
A deferral of pay increases until 2011 is being sought by Ibec in any new talks on a social partnership deal. It said yesterday it was prepared to walk away from the partnership process if an agreement did not contain a pay freeze of that duration.