SIPTU warns of industrial action on a 'very dramatic scale'

SIPTU president Jack O'Connor has today warned that industrial action on a very dramatic scale is needed to ensure the economic crisis is tackled in a fair way.

Mr O'Connor said that any such action could only be part of a co-ordinated national effort to halt an attack on the pay all private and public sector workers.

He also warned the action would not simply be "walks around town".

Speaking after a three-hour emergency meeting of SIPTU's National Executive Council, the union president accused the Government of being party to the agenda of employers to drive down wages across the economy.

His comments come ahead of a meeting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which is getting underway this afternoon.

Mr O'Connor says he will propose a relentless national campaign of action at the ICTU executive meeting tomorrow.