60,000 Siptu members may strike unless pay talks resume

Siptu’s decision to threaten strike action means more than a third of the country’s 300,000 public servants could take to the picket line in a matter of weeks if the Government does not accede to their demands for a renegotiation of the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation earlier this week warned of potential strikes by its 40,000 members — and further action is still very possible if current talks fail with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland.

Now Siptu president Jack O’Connor has given the Government just a week to invite the public service union members of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to talks on a renegotiation of the pay deal. He said those talks should begin no later than February 1.

“Moreover, if they do not [issue the invite] before this day week [Thursday], our national executive council will authorise any negotiating group of members, who are covered by LRA, and who wish to do so, to commence balloting for industrial action and/or strike action in pursuit of their demands,” he said.

There are 60,000 members of Siptu who are currently covered by Lansdowne.

“We utterly reject the assertion that there is no money and that it is a choice between pay increases and services for the public,” said Mr O’Connor.

“The Government made choices in the budget.”

He said those “choices” included the continuation of the lower Vat rate for the hospitality sector, “despite the fact the industry has fully recovered” and “splurging a further €46 million on gifting for the wealthy through cutting capital taxes”.

The Siptu president said his union fully respected the right of every union to take “such action as it deems necessary, in the interests of its members, and especially to address the injustice of lower entry rates”.

However he added: “The problem is that once a group embarks on a solo run, everyone else will have to follow. This is because it could lead to a situation that any resources that are available will be absorbed in settling these individual disputes and there will be nothing left for anyone else.”

He also warned the terms of a new agreement must acknowledge that economic conditions have improved considerably more rapidly than those envisaged when the LRA was first negotiated.