UNION LEADERS meet today to consider escalating the campaign against public sector pay cuts. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) meeting takes place against the backdrop of comments by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan that Government politicians are being threatened by some unions involved in the dispute.
Rolling two-hour stoppages across the health sector and other parts of the public service as well as the temporary closure of offices are among the options to be considered today by Ictu’s public services committee.
Mr Lenihan said there was a suggestion that TDs and councillors who support the Government “would in some way be blacklisted by local authority staff”.
“There has been an element, and I have to say it hasn’t been right across the service, but there has been an element within the Civil Service of non co-operation with the system, in terms of answering telephone calls and in terms of facilitating deputies of all parties,” he said.
“In the last week I have noticed a more serious threat emerging where councillors and deputies of parties who support the Government are being threatened by some local government unions.
“These are serious developments. The further this difficulty escalates, the less likely that anyone will gain from it,” he said.
“It is a fact that the State is not in a position to pay the salaries as they were last year. The decisions have been made by parliament and we have made it very clear to the union side that there is no scope for restoring the reductions that have already been made.
Asked what kind of “threats” he was referring to, the Minister said: “There was a suggestion that deputies and councillors who support the Government would in some way be blacklisted by local authority staff.”
Mr Lenihan’s comments, made to the Sunday Independent were confirmed by his department yesterday.
Last night Ictu said it was unaware of any direct threats by unions to blacklist individual councillors or TDs from parties which supported the pay cuts in the public sector.
An Ictu spokesman said: “I have heard nothing to do with any threats, I don’t believe that is the case.”
Paddy Healy, chairman of the National Public Services Alliance, an informal group of public service union activists, said last night: “We are calling on people not to vote for any TD in the next election who has voted for cuts in public service pay and in social welfare. They can remove themselves from the blacklist by voting to reverse the cuts.”
Last night, the Government again ruled out any reversal of the pay reductions. Minister of State John Curran said negotiations with the public service unions could only take place “on the clear understanding of the limited funding available”.
Yesterday the 24/7 Frontline Alliance, which represents public sector staff including groups such as gardaí and psychiatric nurses who are not affiliated to Ictu, said that it fully supported escalating the campaign.