One of Ireland's leading trade unions is calling on politicians to stop focusing on tax cuts and promise measures to help manufacturing workers face job losses.

One of Ireland's leading trade unions is calling on politicians to stop focusing on tax cuts and promise measures to help manufacturing workers face job losses.

AN estimated 450 ESB power workers are to consider industrial action which could severely hamper electricity supplies across the country at the height of winter.

NEW hopes emerged yesterday for an improved redundancy package for 300 workers who recently lost their jobs in west Limerick.

RETAIL giant Tesco has been called on to help fight for a better redundancy package for poultry workers who will lose their jobs in Co Limerick today.

THE country’s trade unions are expected to ratify the latest social partnership agreement later today, clearing the way for pay increases of 10% over 27 months for more than 500,000 workers.

The EU is obsessed with economic growth and increasing military might ahead of other issues like poverty and human rights, it was claimed today.

Trade unionists are calling on local authorities to ensure all the private companies they hire pay a minimum wage of €10-an-hour.

THE National Executive of the country’s largest trade union, SIPTU, yesterday came out in favour of the terms of the national ‘Towards 2016’ partnership agreement.

The ATGWU has become the latest trade union to reject the proposed new social partnership deal.

WHY doesn’t the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) admit that the so-called partnership deals are dead, at least in their current form?

The Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) has called for all Irish workers to be granted pay increases every year at the same level of economic growth.

TWO of Ireland’s largest unions, the ATGWU and SIPTU, have launched a joint initiative designed to increase union membership.

THE second anniversary of EU accession yesterday was marked by calls for increased protection for migrant workers as European nations remain divided over whether to open their borders.

Two of the country's biggest unions are teaming up to try and strengthen worker organisation throughout the island.

MORE than 100 workers issued with protective notice last Thursday have received registered letters, telling them they could be out of a job by the weekend.

MANAGEMENT and unions at Waterford Crystal have denied a local newspaper claim that up to 500 jobs are to go at its plant in Kilbarry on the edge of Waterford city.

COMMENTARY by employers’ groups and conservative pundits on wage levels in the Irish economy usually boils down to allegations that wages are ‘too high’, ‘growing too fast’, ‘undermining our competitiveness’, etc.

Wages in many industries are in freefall causing a fall-off in workers’ living standards, it was claimed today.

STRIKE action by security staff which forced the cancellation yesterday of 18 operations at Waterford Regional Hospital was called off last night after a meeting between SIPTU and the Health Service Executive (HSE).

A strike by security workers which disrupted operations at a Waterford hospital was called off tonight.

IRISH workers’ wages are almost 10% behind the EU-15 average, according to a trade union-sponsored report released yesterday.

The ATGWU has rejected employers' claims that high wages are undermining Ireland's economic competitiveness.

Irish workers are paid poorly by European standards, a new report claimed today.

Thousands of workers are to march on the Dáil today to voice their anger over the controversial redundancies at Irish Ferries.

Moves by Irish Ferries to replace employees on its vessels with cheaper staff from overseas could be a glimpse of the future for workers across Europe, a union chief said today.

WE, the undersigned, support the Rossport Five in their demand for the natural resources of Ireland to be used for the benefit of the Irish people, and for those same resources to be extracted in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.

More than 1,000 ESB technicians are returning to work this morning following a decision by their union to call off strike action that began on Monday.

UNION officials at Waterford Crystal have described as “outrageous and obscene” the bonuses paid to seven executives at a time when the company was axing 485 jobs in Dungarvan.

THE strike committee of the ATGWU, which represents 1,200 striking ESB technicians, last night agreed to lift its pickets and instruct its members to return to work today.

The ATGWU's national executive is expected to call off the union's strike action at ESB following a meeting this evening.

Members of the Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union appear to be heeding their leaders' instructions not to join striking members of the ATGWU at the ESB.

The The Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) has called on ATGWU official Brendan Ogle to apologise for referring to TEEU members as “black-leg” workers last Friday.

The Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union has refused to back the strike action being taken by ATGWU technicians at ESB.

The ESB has restored power to thousands of homes and businesses in north Co Dublin that were left in the dark following a transformer fault early this morning.

A union representing ESB technicians on strike said today it would deal with around 100 workers who had not supported the action.

The ESB is currently working to restore power to hundreds of homes and businesses in north Co Dublin today following a transformer fault early this morning.

Around 1,200 ESB technicians are downing tools this morning as part of a dispute over the company's use of external contractors.

ELECTRICAL technicians are set to strike from 8am today after the prospect of talks between union management and the ESB collapsed yesterday.

The two remaining ESB unions have instructed members to report for work as normal tomorrow.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today the proposed strike action by 1,200 ESB network technicians was entirely unnecessary.

A strike at the ESB is to go ahead tomorrow after talks aimed at resolving a dispute over the use of outside contractors failed to go ahead this morning.

A strike by ESB technicians is looking increasingly likely following a decision by the company's management to pull out of planned talks this morning.

ESB management is due to meet ATGWU representatives today in a further effort to avert planned strike action by around half of the company's technicians.