Industrial action - Strike, but don’t punish the public

A LONG, hot summer of discontent is looming on the industrial relations front as 40,000 militant nurses crank up their campaign for more pay and shorter working hours and as Aer Lingus passengers brace themselves for flights to be disrupted from tomorrow at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports despite the 11th hour intervention of the Labour Court, which hopefully resolve the row.

From a jaundiced public’s viewpoint, the worrying aspect of these essential service disputes, is that the airline and health employers are digging in their heels, resisting calls to open negotiations. With a General Election looming in three months’ time, the workers hold a political ace.

They know that disputes which hit vital services like health and travel are sure to heighten fears among Coalition backbenchers who expect a tough grilling on the doorsteps. With the political contest getting tighter in the opinion polls, Fianna Fáil and the PDs are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The Government is afraid that if nurses’ demands are conceded, it could trigger similar claims from other unions or lead to extra nurses being recruited. But given the deserved popularity of nurses with the general public, the longer this dispute drags on, the more damaging it will be for the outgoing parties.

Essentially, the nursing unions argue that deals have already been clinched with 14 other groups and that their members are being treated unfairly and harshly. Basically, nurses want a 10% pay rise, a more generous allowance for nurses working in Dublin, a reduction in the working week from 39 to 35 hours and the elimination of an anomaly whereby qualified nurses and midwives are paid less than unqualified childcare workers reporting to them.

The seething anger felt by nurses, including those in psychiatric services, was plain to see yesterday as hundreds gathered in protest at the failure of employers to address their grievances. But while they accuse the Health Service Executive of refusing to engage in meaningful talks, the HSE insists no claim can be entertained outside the benchmarking process.

The situation is no less intractable at Aer Lingus where shop stewards were meeting last night to formalise strike plans.

Staff have opposed company demands for staff to help train new employees being recruited on reduced terms and conditions. As a result, the troubled airline cannot guarantee that all flights will operate from tomorrow.

The inevitable fall out from these disputes is that the long suffering public will be squeezed.

From Dublin to Cork, and from Waterford to Donegal, conditions for patients are already below par in the country’s hospitals. But they will get even worse when nurses stage lightning action, including a nationwide work-to-rule and short work stoppages, with minimum notice to hospital managers.

Viewed against this depressing backdrop, the negotiation vacuum in the health service and at Aer Lingus cannot be justified. There is an onus on all sides to come around the table in a realistic effort to resolve their differences.

Both sides realise settlement negotiations will have to start at some juncture. Obviously, it’s in the public interest that talks get under way sooner rather than later.

It is utterly unacceptable for vulnerable hospital patients and beleaguered members of the travelling public to be used as pawns in cynical games of brinkmanship that smack of the bad old days of industrial relations chaos.