Self-destructive - Luas pay dispute

ANY trade union that goes to an employer and with a straight face asks for a pay rise of 53%, albeit over five years, is plain daft and should not be disappointed when its advances are rejected out of hand.

That such a request comes from one of the unions representing workers who, if they win any concession from their employers, will provoke copycat demands right across the public and semi-state sector just adds to the sense of the ridiculous framing the Luas dispute in Dublin.

The fact that the dispute has meant huge disruption for 100,000 commuters in Dublin seems of little concern to unions pursuing unrealistic demands.

There has not been, for a century at least, a moment when workers right across society needed powerful, organised, successful, and responsible, unions more.

Pay has stagnated, jobs are ever more temporary and hard won rights are dismissed. Ordinary workers’ lives are a pale version of earlier generations yet union membership is at an all time low and falling. With demands like this is it any wonder?