No ICTU agreement on Fiscal Treaty recommendation

ICTU's executive council has today decided not to make any recommendation to members on how to vote in the EU Fiscal Treaty referendum.

ICTU general secretary David Begg said was not possible to agree on a position on the Fiscal Treaty referendum, as everyone thinks it is a bad treaty that Ireland did not have a lot of engagement with.

Begg said it was a matter of record that he was personally against the treaty but could not tell affiliated unions across the country how to vote.

“We don't actually issue a recommendation to our affiliates that they should vote either in favour or against the treaty, simply because we feel we're in the type of situation where we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t,” he said.

“The potential consequences for either decision are very high and it wasn't possible to get to a point where everybody was comfortable to make such a recommendation.”

ICTU has decided that it will issue a guide to unions to assist them in taking their own position, but it will neither endorse or reject the treaty.

Three unions, UNITE, Mandate and the TEEU, have already advised their members to vote No in the referendum on May 31, saying the treaty will reinforce austerity.