Unions ‘disappointed’ to be excluded from taskforce

TRADE unions have said they are “surprised and not a little disappointed” not to have a place on the Government’s new Innovation Taskforce.

In his description of the taskforce’s aims, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said it would advise the Government on “its strategy for positioning Ireland as an international Innovation Hub and to assist in making the Smart Economy a reality”.

However, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the make-up of the body showed the Government was reverting to the business-led agenda which got the country into trouble in the first place.

“We are taken aback, surprised and not a little disappointed that after six months working with the Government on an economic recovery plan, the one major initiative emerging from that excludes us,” said the ICTU spokesman. “We were the first grouping to put forward a coherent plan. We put forward the €1bn job protection proposal – only last week we hosted a conference in which we outlined how 110,000 jobs could be created over the next 15 years through the green economy.

“By excluding unions, they are carrying on the old employer mindset of business above all else that got us into the economic state we face.”

However, that is the thinking which appears to be dominating the Government’s actions at present.

Brian Cowen said of the Innovation Taskforce: “The lesson from severe global recessions in the past is that as well as weathering the economic storm, countries need to restructure their economies to target the next wave of economic growth.”

Therefore he has appointed two university presidents as well as the chiefs of pharmaceutical companies and business leaders. To add salt to the ICTU wounds, the initiative is also chaired by the Taoiseach’s secretary general Dermot McCarthy, who is also the man chairing the economic recovery talks of which unions have been a key participant.

Meanwhile, ICTU general secretary David Begg has told Reuters ongoing negotiations on a new national wage agreement will likely lead to a new, moderated deal compared with that which was hammered out in September.

Mr Begg said: “Overall the increases would be fairly moderate and they won’t apply to all companies.”

He also said unions remained opposed to the view that the cure for the country’s economic woes lay in reducing wages.