THE HEAD of the country’s largest trade union Siptu has said the stage was set for a confrontation because of the Government’s Thatcherite and “slash-and burn” strategy.
At the opening of Siptu’s biennial delegate conference in Tralee last night, Jack O’Connor also said that the union would be seeking the introduction of “a proper universal pension system” as a return for workers playing their part in any new economic recovery agreement.
Mr O’Connor said he believed that there was no viable alternative to an agreement between the unions, Government and employers on a fairer, better way of tackling the country’s economic problems.
However, he warned that any such deal would have to involve a clear and transparent sharing of the burden on the basis of ability to contribute.
He said it could not just be about “woolly words and cuddly concepts and like the myth of social partnership which has been shown to provide a surplus of access and a deficit of influence”.
In his speech to delegates, Mr O’Connor said the union movement had sought to avoid confrontation. He said the Government had made it clear that working people and those who depended on public services would have to shoulder the lion’s share of the burden of the adjustments.
He said this translated into the pay-cutting agenda across the public service and savage reductions in public spending.
“We are left with no alternative but to organise working people to mount the most effective resistance possible.
“It is also why our own national executive council has decided, while fully supporting the call from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions [Ictu], to renew our mandate for industrial action and strike action to force either compliance with the [national] agreement of September last year or the negotiation of alternative terms,” he added.
Mr O’Connor also said he wanted to make clear that there would be no suspension of this campaign “unless and until terms worthy of consideration by union members emerge”.
The Siptu leader also strongly rejected what he described as the cynical exploitation of ordinary workers by the employers’ body Ibec yesterday in seeking to launch a pay-cutting agenda across the economy. He said he wanted to know from Ibec what the wealthy people it represented were prepared to contribute to economic recovery.
The employers’ group yesterday said that wage increases before 2011 were unrealistic but called on the Government to reconvene social partnership talks.
Mr O’Connor also strongly criticised Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan. He said he did not question his intellect, commitment or integrity but that his policies were “remarkable for their sheer lack of compassion for his fellow citizens”.
The Siptu president also said he did not envisage any new national recovery deal representing “a framework for sacrifice to facilitate a return to business as usual”.
“There must be a clear return for working people in view of their participation which extends beyond the prospect that ‘you might have a job’.
‘‘We will insist on a social dividend entailing the establishment of a proper universal pension system, from which every worker would benefit, to be developed incrementally over time in conjunction with economic growth,” he said.
Mr O’Connor echoed the calls made last week by Ictu general secretary David Begg for the Government to tackle the problem of the public finances over a longer period of time.
“We can envisage a way ahead which schedules the fiscal adjustment over a sustainable timeframe. It is virtually impossible to achieve it over a short five years without inflicting irreparable further damage, and we would point out that the pressures in the global market which gave rise to the draconian fiscal plan have greatly eased.”