ICTU SUPPORT:TWO OF the country's most prominent trade union leaders have come out in support of the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking at the biennial delegate conference of the trade union Impact in Kilkenny, Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) general secretary David Begg said the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which will be incorporated in the new treaty, contained provisions that would improve protections for workers.
While Mr Begg did not specifically call on workers to vote for the treaty in the referendum, he said they should "let their heads rule their hearts, irrespective of what they thought of people in the European Commission".
Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said the Ictu executive would next week consider its position on the treaty referendum.
"In my contribution to the debate, I will be reminding all trade unions that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is a prize that trade unions across Europe have pursued for many, many years. I believe they would be amazed if unions in Ireland decided that they were prepared to risk its rejection now that it is finally within our grasp."
Mr Begg said the charter gave legal status to a range of individual and collective rights supporting human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity. He said that specifically, Article 28 of the charter set out the right to conclude and negotiate collective agreements, a burning issue for unions in Ireland on foot of a ruling by the Supreme Court last year in a case brought by Ryanair.
Unions believe this ruling emasculated legislation that gave them limited rights to represent workers in non-union companies.
"It must be understood that Article 28 would only be effective in domestic Irish law if and when the Government is implementing EU law relevant to it," said Mr Begg.
"But if these rights, endorsed by the people, become fundamental rights when implementing EU law, it is hard to see how the Supreme Court could disregard them in another context."
Mr Begg said many people in the trade union movement were disenchanted with the European project. They regarded the concept of social Europe as having been put on the back burner at best or sacrificed on the altar of neoliberalism, at worst.
"Our experience of the [European] Commission's attempt to introduce the services directive in its original form has left a bad taste. These fears are not irrational, for the present commission is probably the most neoliberal ever," he said.
In a statement last night, Sinn Féin, which is campaigning for a No vote, said Mr Begg was wrong about the charter. The party's spokesman on workers' rights, Arthur Morgan, said it was made up of rights that were already in existence in most states.
"The clause on workers' rights states that workers will only have the right to collective bargaining and strike action 'in accordance with national laws and practices'," he said.