SIPTU boss: Govt has set stage for confrontation

SIPTU president Jack O'Connor has told the union's annual conference that the Government has set the stage for major confrontation by launching a savage assault on workers and public services.

Speaking at the event in Tralee, Co Kerry, last night, Mr O'Connor said the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition had decided that working people should bear the burden of €4bn worth of cuts in the forthcoming budget.

He said those at the top levels of society would be insulated as much as possible from having to suffer any hardship.

Mr O'Connor accused Finance Minister Brian Lenihan of showing a "sheer lack of compassion for his fellow citizens" and of pursuing "capitalism in its crudest form".

He said any potential new social partnership deal would have to contain a return for working people and he vowed that SIPTU would insist on a universal pension system.

The SIPTU boss also reacted to IBEC's call for a 12-month pay freeze by demanding to know what employers were going to contribute to the resolution of the country's problems.