The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has been accused of trying to "`build a Mary Ellen Synon society, in which the rich pay less tax and the poor fend for themselves".
The remarks were made by SIPTU's new midlands regional secretary, Mr Mike Jennings, at a union conference in Mullingar yesterday.
"Ms Harney is the person who once famously remarked that our society should be like Hong Kong, but she didn't explain why we should want their levels of poverty, their levels of crime, their levels of overcrowding, drug addiction and squalor," he said.
"Now she has developed this argument to a more sophisticated level. She says we should be more like Boston than Brussels. What Mary Harney and her like believe is that we should have America's greed, not Europe's compassion . . . "I have been to Boston - it's a lovely city," Mr Jennings said. "I have also been to Brussels and it is frankly quite boring. But ask yourself this: would you rather get sick in Boston or Brussels?
"The call for Boston instead of Brussels is a thinly veiled call for acceptance of a society where the rich pay less and the poor can fend for themselves."
Mr Jennings also said the question of "immigrant workers, racism, xenophobia and multiculturalism" had become a major is sue for trade unions. "In SIPTU we are proud of our role in opposing racism and fighting against the exploitation of vulnerable fellow workers. To our non-national fellow workers, we say the trade union movement has always been the means of fighting injustice and building equality. Join us and let us fight the latest phase of the battle together."