Frontline Alliance: Inevitable strikes over pay cuts

LEADERS of trade unions representing frontline workers in the public service have warned that industrial action is inevitable if the Government insists on implementing further wage cuts on their members.

The 24/7 Frontline Alliance yesterday accused the Government of failing to consider alternatives to a further round of pay reductions for public sector workers in the forthcoming budget. The alliance consists of six trade unions representing nurses, gardaí, firefighters and prison officers.

More than 5,000 members attended regional meetings around the country over the past month in protest at recommendations in the Bord Snip Nua Report to axe 4,000 hospital beds and close half of all Garda stations.

Leaders of the alliance are due to meet in Dublin again today to plan the next stage of their campaign.

Yesterday, Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, said it was time for the Government who were advocating “a cut, slash and burn gospel” to explain why it was refusing to consider alternatives to further wage cuts for public servants.

Mr Doran said the Government seemed “hell bent on hitting people on very, very ordinary incomes”.

He claimed confrontation appeared inevitable if public servants continued to be the focus of pronouncements of growing severity as evidenced in statements by both the Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan in recent days. “The Frontline Alliance is about protecting services and protecting citizens through protecting ourselves,” said Mr Doran.

“It is not a crime to earn €45,000 a year for being a frontline public servant. This Government would almost portray it as being a crime. And that is irksome and annoying and creates a sense of betrayal.”

His warning came after the alliance held separate meetings with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Labour leader Eamonn Gilmore in Dublin yesterday,. The chairman of the alliance and general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association Des Kavanagh described the reaction of the Opposition leaders to their campaign as “quite positive”. Mr Kavanagh said both politicians had acknowledged the contributions members of the alliance had already made through the pension levy. He reminded the Government that any plan to address problems with the country’s finances had to be implemented fairly.

Mr Kavanagh said many public servants were already in serious financial difficulty as a result of the pension levy and other tax increases which had reduced their annual income by up to €5,000.