Corporate greed ‘cause of economic woes’

GLOBAL corporate greed and dishonesty combined with corruption and unscrupulous profiteering at home have caused our current economic problems, SIPTU president Des Geraghty said yesterday.

Mr Geraghty told his union’s biennial conference in Galway the consequences of the September 11 attacks on the US and the resulting undermining of the world’s peace and human rights institutions presented trade unions everywhere with their greatest challenge.

Criticising what he called the dominant agenda of the new right, Mr Geraghty challenged the trade union movement to take a long-term view of the bigger picture and act for the global good.

“We must take the lead. Not only must we never become hopeless or helpless onlookers in a world of change, we must also become the architects and builders of the new order, playing an active part as trade unionists in Ireland, Europe or on the world stage. We must continually challenge the assumptions of the New Right,” he said.

In his final speech as SIPTU president, Mr Geraghty was scathing of the Government’s failure to address poverty, inequality and health deficits. The continuing rise in house prices was a national scandal and a rip-off, he said.

“There is something fundamentally and shockingly wrong with a society that forces growing numbers of homeless onto the streets,” he said.

Mr Geraghty warned that trade union members will not allow themselves to be the scapegoated for Ireland’s economic problems.

“We reject the view that workers’ wages are causing a recession or driving inflation, and we are right to be outraged at the blatant bias and sloppy, self-serving analysis behind these assertions,” he said.

Mr Geraghty added that those seeking answers to Ireland’s economic problems needed to look at corporate greed and corruption instead of blaming trade unions. “We need to take a close look at corporate avarice, inflated performance figures by major corporations, the rapacious role of money-making institutions which produce nothing and provide no real services; those who rezone land, overcharge for houses, health care, insurance, those who abuse a monopoly position in the market place,” he said.

Mr Geraghty said global recession was hitting output in Irish companies, while the trend towards relocation to lower cost economies was resulting in job losses. He warned of the increasing divide between ordinary workers who wanted to contribute to and improve society and the new right, which is intent on profits and deregulation at any cost.

“The divide is increasingly evident here in Ireland in politics, economics and in society generally,” he said. “They want more and more privatisation, cuts in public services, reduced taxes on property and capital, no trade unions and no national agreements. They want no constraints on their profiteering,” he added.