Madam, – The request for pay increases at this moment in our economic history beggars belief and should be resisted (“Electricians’ strike threatens jobs in wider economy, say employers”, July 7th).
We are experiencing the most profound changes to our economic circumstance and decisions, for good or ill, that are taken now shall ring through the coming decades.
To choose to strike for pay increases in a massive deflationary contraction makes no logical sense and will compound our problems.
As Adam Smith remarked long ago: “Though the wages of the workmen are commonly paid to him in money, his real revenue, like that of all other men, consists, not in money, but in the money’s worth, not in the metal pieces, but in what can be got for them.”
Notwithstanding Government tax increases, social partners must acknowledge the big increase in real wages they have received as prices have fallen over the past two years. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With the economy on its knees and the construction sector in particular on life support the decision by electricians to proceed with their strike action simply defies belief.
To disrupt the construction of vital national infrastructure such as Dublin airport’s Terminal 2 in pursuit of an 11 per cent pay rise at a time when people lucky enough to still have a job are facing pay cuts is nothing short of a disgrace.
Even worse is the gleeful encouragement being provided by the wider trade union movement who seem stuck in some sort of 19th century class warfare time-warp. It is not the “rich elites” who are resisting these pay demands it is simple economic logic!
The unions need to be brought to their senses before their actions drive even more people onto the live register. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With over 10,000 electricians currently refusing to work, and thousands of unemployed electricians on the dole across the country, surely the solution to the current strike is obvious? – Yours etc,