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Monday, 28 September 2009 |
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Major Campaign of industrial action planned by SIPTU
The following decision to initiate a campaign of industrial action was agreed by the National Executive of SIPTU, the country’s largest union, yesterday.
See full text below. STATEMENT BY SIPTU NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Over the last two days, the National Executive Council has undertaken a detailed review of the economic and industrial situation. It is now clear beyond all doubt that the Government has decided that working people and those who depend most on public services will exclusively shoulder the burden of the mismanagement of the economy exclusively. Meanwhile, those at the top of society, including people who made fortunes selling property to developers during the boom, are to be insulated from the obligation to make a contribution commensurate with their capacity to do so.
The NAMA Project is designed to shift the risk of recklessly-accumulated toxic assets from the bank shareholders and bondholders to the taxpayer. Meanwhile, the green light for aggressively cutting pay and conditions of employment across the economy has clearly been signalled. The time to declare that ‘Enough Is Enough’ is long past. Earlier this year, our members voted in favour of industrial action and strike action to persuade the Government and the employers to comply with existing agreements, or otherwise negotiate acceptable alternatives. It is now obvious, as far the Government is concerned at least, that it has no interest in doing either. Therefore, despite all our efforts, the gigantic confrontation which we have endeavoured so hard to avoid, seems inevitable. We suspended our campaign of action last March in order to facilitate negotiations.
The outcome on June 23rd, fell far short of what could be considered fair or balanced. There have been no Social Partnership talks since June 24th and efforts to reconvene them have proved fruitless. Discussions are taking place on the Public Service side. However, statements made by members of the Government indicate that they are contemplating securing all of the €4bn adjustment due this year in the form of public spending cuts which would entail further pay cuts as well. This means that those at the top of society would contribute nothing additional next year at all. There is no prospect of reaching agreement on this basis. Last Wednesday’s decision of the Executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to re-launch the campaign is long overdue.
A special meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday next, September 30th, to finalise plans. While the campaign will obviously entail multifaceted activities, it is now clear there is no prospect of success unless we are prepared to engage in industrial action and strike action. Accordingly, all branches are directed to convene meetings of their section committees and shop stewards to prepare for action in their locations to resist pay and job cuts and dismantlement of other conditions of employment. This should be focussed on maximising the effect on the authorities, while minimising inconvenience to the public and the suffering of our own members.
Particular emphasis must be placed on communicating with the general membership, consulting with them as to the course of action to be embarked upon, the reason for it and the objective to be achieved, ie a fair and balanced agreement which respects employment and agreed pay and conditions. A further communication outlining plans will issue before the end of next week. September 25th, 2009
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