Strike threats - Get a grip Mr O’Connor

SIPTU chief Jack O’Connor would do well to heed the warning from Labour leader Eamon Gilmore when he warned unions that strikes against the pension levy could backfire.

Speaking before Mr O’Connor threatened that industrial action “on a very dramatic scale” could be needed to fight against what he described as an ongoing attack on workers, Mr Gilmore said that “this... is not a time for industrial relations tactics which may have worked for you in the past but which now will only further alienate a wider public who are worried about the security of their own jobs and businesses”.

Ominously, Mr O’Connor warned yesterday that any industrial action would involve much more than “walks around town”.