Strict conditions to determine whether SIPTU will support fresh talks
With a crucial SIPTU vote on entry to partnership talks now postponed for two weeks, addressing delegates at SIPTU’s biennial conference in Cork, Mr O’Connor said no worker, Irish or otherwise, should be “subject to predators, and exploiters and parasites” like those seeking to replace staff at Irish Ferries with cheaper labour from abroad.
“It should be accepted by all that there should be a certain minimum standard of decency in employment relationships in this country and it should apply to everyone.”
While acknowledging the potential of a true social partnership, Mr O’Connor said he had no interest in participating in “any sort of charade” if it couldn’t “protect workers, their jobs and their futures”.
“This is not a single event. It is a dramatic escalation of a process which has been underway for some time which threatens every worker in Ireland,” he said.
To loud cheers and a standing ovation from delegates the SIPTU leader pledged to do everything possible to resist the trend of worker abuse exemplified by Irish Ferries. “I have no doubt that we will take punishment but I am absolutely confident that we will inflict it as well if the need arises.”
But he also warned that a pull out from social partnership and the ensuing industrial relations battle would completely redefine the future of the trade union movement and involve considerable consequences.
SIPTU Irish Ferries representative Paul Smyth said the decision the union now had to make was about much more than just Irish Ferries.
“This is about a company who have made a decision to send a message that the protections for workers, for which we have fought for years, mean absolutely nothing.” Raising the possibility of a national general strike Mr Smyth said the Irish Ferries dispute would dictate how SIPTU would be judged in the future.
Addressing yesterday’s conference Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg also criticised IBEC and challenged the wider business community to speak up.
Enterprise Minister Michéal Martin defended social partnership as having provided stability and high levels of jobs growth and investment.
