Trade unions played no part in wrecking economy

DEPUTY Lucinda Creighton warns that trade unions should be worried about the prospect of Fine Gael getting into government.

Ms Creighton echoes the statement on the Fine Gael website that the party “will take on the big vested interests that have contributed to the current crisis — the bankers, the bondholders, the developers and the unions.”

The party has moved a long way to the right since my colleague in the print industry, the late Cllr Pat O’Reilly of Kildare, proudly wore his Fine Gael and GPMU badges side by side, insisting that Fine Gael was a broad church which saw no conflict between organised labour and free enterprise. How Pat and his colleagues in the FG Trade Union Group would have raged with indignation at being lumped in with those responsible for wrecking the Irish economy. The FG declaration of war on trade unions should not go unchallenged. My union is not affiliated to any political party and over the years we have dealt with all the political parties on a range of policy issues. Trade unions exist for the benefit of members and the use of the term “vested interests” to describe organised labour is as insulting as it is inappropriate. Social partnership, the object of scorn from Ms Creighton, covered the public and private sector and is multi-faceted. It was not just about public sector pay — or indeed just about wages, payments and conditions. Sadly the “undue influence” referred to by the deputy did not extend to influencing fiscal policy or the treatment of the developers, the banking institutions or the bondholders.