Trade union support for the Nice Treaty was undermined yesterday when delegates to a SIPTU conference in Dublin called for its rejection. The vote is likely to seriously embarrass leaders who are campaigning for a Yes vote.
Delegates to the Dublin regional conference voted by 184 votes to 134 to oppose the treaty because "it opens the way to greater military intervention and further economic liberalism".
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called on workers to vote Yes, while SIPTU's national executive council endorsed that position earlier this week.
Proposing the motion that the treaty be opposed, Mr Kieran Allen of SIPTU's education branch said there were three particular reasons for voting No.
The treaty was setting up the legal framework for a European army; it was committed to promoting privatisation; and it was anti-democratic because it gave more say to the EU's big powers.
Mr Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, who was invited to address the conference, said the treaty was a step towards the creation of an EU super-state.
This was challenged by another guest speaker, the Labour Party president, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, who said trade unionists had nothing to fear from the EU and everything to gain.
In the lively debate that ensued, a majority of speakers called for a rejection of the treaty. Mr John Finney of the local authorities branch said a Yes vote would mean the six big powers could outvote the other 21 states in an enlarged Council of Ministers.
"Why are we having this debate today when a decision has already been taken?" Mr Andrew McGuinness of the construction branch asked, referring to the stance already adopted by the union's leadership.
Mr Cole claimed the vote was a clear indication that the trade union movement may be out of step with its members. The ICTU, he said, had taken members for granted in calling for a Yes vote.