Strict conditions to determine whether SIPTU will support fresh talks

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor yesterday laid down strict conditions which will determine whether the country’s most powerful union supports talks on a new national agreement.

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.”