SIPTU to continue campaign for action

SIPTU has no intention of scrapping the renewal of its mandate for industrial action in the face of Government-backed cutbacks, while the group representing business has said pay rises in 2010 are unrealistic.

Last night, the union’s general president Jack O’Connor condemned regulators who “looked the other way” when the economic crisis was developing and “hit and run” economics which were “driving the nation towards another crash”.

The Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) has, meanwhile, repeated its call for suspension of the pay terms of last year’s national agreement. IBEC director general Danny McCoy said his organisation wanted to tackle the national jobs crisis “through a partnership approach”.

IBEC was willing to make “a final push” to conclude an agreement on national recovery with ICTU and the Government, “but such a deal must recognise the fact that businesses cannot give any pay increases in 2010 and that many enterprises will in fact be reducing their pay bill.

“If consensus cannot be reached in the coming weeks, IBEC will take its own decision in relation to its continued participation in the pay agreement, taking account of the pressure on most businesses to do what is necessary to survive and retain jobs.”

Speaking at the start of the union’s centenary conference in Tralee, Mr O’Connor told delegates that there was no question of suspending the renewed campaign of industrial unrest upon which SIPTU and the ICTU was embarking “unless and until terms worthy of consideration by union members emerge” that could form the basis for a national agreement.

The policy of shifting the tax burden from the wealthy and better off so that they could engage in speculation was the outworking of a political and economic outlook mesmerised by the myth of “the market”, he said.

Far from using the opportunity created by the crisis “to develop a fully inclusive, and socially equitable” response to the crisis, the Government had made it clear “that the burden of the gross mismanagement of the economy is to be borne exclusively by working people and those who depend most on public services, while those at the top of society are to be insulated as far as possible.

The Government “buckled to pressure from the banks and awarded them a €400bn gilt-edged credit guarantee in the name of the Irish taxpayer. This fateful decision set the subsequent course of history, trapping the Government, and all of us in its toxic net.”

SIPTU called for “a clear and transparent sharing of the burden on the basis of ability to contribute, and that means those who have most must contribute most,” Mr O’Connor said.