Union tells it like it is in pay row - Impact on sweetheart deals

IF there was any doubt about the consequences of the Government making concessions to gardaí and some teachers — barely 10% of public employees — outside the Lansdowne Road agreement, there can be none after yesterday’s contribution from the Impact trade union. 

Impact, with 60,000 members and the largest public sector union, warned that if “special favours are conceded to any group outside... Lansdowne Road, other claims are bound to emerge... quickly and would be impossible to contain”. The union warned, without putting a tooth in it, that it “is... unacceptable”. This seems to reflect the rational, equitable approach which made it possible to impose sacrifices that made such a great contribution to generating our economic recovery.

The position is unlikely to be welcomed by teachers or gardaí, who imagine they have a special case, but it may seem, to private sector workers who can only dream about pay “restoration”, that there is some understanding of the idea of social responsibility in at least one union.

Our splintering political system weakens our democracy and its capacity to deliver for all in society. There are suggestions that the Government will, one way or another, concede to the garda and teacher demands. That would be, as Impact point out, a tragedy. The Government must hold the line, in the name of some sort of public sector equity, stability, and economic sanity.