Unity

From Unity, 19 June 2010

Heads on the chopping block

Members of SIPTU voted by a substantial majority on 11 June to support the Croke Park public-sector pay and reform agreement. According to press reports, over 65 per cent of those participating in the ballot voted to support the proposals negotiated by public-service unions and employers at Croke Park earlier this year.
     Business and Finance, described as “Ireland’s leading finance magazine,” announced that Jack O’Connor, general president of SIPTU, has won the Businessperson of the Month award. In doing so they also told their readers: “O’Connor had recently advised SIPTU members to vote in favour of the Croke Park deal, acknowledging its importance to the economy.”
     There is no analysis of what is meant by “the economy,” but we as communists can advise that it will not be to the economic interests of the working people.
     The comments made by O’Connor are either naïve or in collusion with capitalism. This is so disappointing from a man who has shown intelligence and leadership at other times. Jack O’Connor said: “If you have a long industrial campaign . . . the interpretation of it externally would be that the Government wasn’t able to honour its commitments and consequently, the credibility of Government bonds would be very much in question.
     “If the Croke Park deal is accepted, our position is going to be: the people of the public service have stepped up to the mark and have committed [themselves] to huge sacrifices, now what are the wealthy going to do?” O’Connor said.
     “If the answer is still nothing, it’s going to be a political campaign.”
     We will wait to see what shape the “political campaign” will take, but we will not hold our breath waiting for the wealthy to do anything other than act in their own interests.

Frozen pay but no “frozen food”

Under the Croke Park “deal” the Irish Government says it will make no further public-sector pay cuts for the next four years, providing there is no “unforeseen deterioration” in the budget. There will be a pay freeze until 2014, and workers will not make demands or go on strike for higher wages.
     We ask, will the cost of gas, electricity, food and other commodities also be frozen? A significant section of the trade union leadership have put their heads on the chopping-block by agreeing to prevent strikes and end work-to-rule protests. (Croaking in more ways than one!)
     Jack O’Connor said: “Any attempts to deviate from the delicate balance enshrined in the proposals will bring about the collapse of the arrangements. The onus now passes on to those at the top of society, who have contributed little or nothing to the resolution of our economic problems while working people and those who depend most on public services have carried the lion’s share of the burden . . . The Government must now face up to the obligation to stop insulating the rich and tax wealth and trophy houses in budget 2011.”
     In December last year the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, introduced public-sector pay cuts of between 5 and 15% to achieve a quarter of the €4 billion in savings that were made. Unions led thousands in large protests against these measures, but since then, objections have taken a slower pace.
     In double-talk, Jack O’Connor said, “I wouldn’t say that we would rule out strikes absolutely,” adding that if public-service trade unions were to mobilise they could provide “very effective opposition.”
     In the meantime not all unions are backing the deal. Those that have rejected it include the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation, which has more than 40,000 members, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland—more than 72,000 workers. Craft workers from the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union and lower-paid public servants with the Civil, Public and Services Union have also refused to back the deal.
     Mike Jennings, general secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers,said: “Whilst there are some positives in the proposed agreement, the offer of a blank cheque for the renegotiation of staff contracts, with fundamental and far-reaching implications for educational standards, is simply not acceptable.” The executive of IFUT also decided that it would not be bound by the outcome of any aggregate vote on the deal involving the Public Service Committee of the ICTU. The executive committees of seven public-service unions affiliated to the ICTU have now indicated their opposition to the Croke Park deal.
     The deal has been criticised in particular over a clause that states that the terms are subject to there being “no currently unforeseen budgetary deterioration.” This can be seen as a “catch all” situation for the Government.
     Senior trade unionists and Government representative negotiated this deal more than two months ago. Set against the backdrop of bank bail-outs, this action against the workers is breathtaking. If the playwright Seán O’Casey were alive today no doubt he would couch the deal in literary football language: a kick from the right and a poor pass to the left. All we can say is, Team up and fight back.

Previous winners of “Businessperson of the Month” include:
     Matthew Elderfield (Financial Regulator)
     Jim Barry (NTR)
     Aidan Heavey (Tullow Oil)
     Brian Lenihan (Minister for Finance)
     Patrick Kennedy (Paddy Power)
     Hugh O’Donnell (Kentz)
     Jim O’Hara (Intel)
     Pat McGrath (PM Group)

Sources: ICTU web page, Belfast Telegraph, Irish Times, Business and Finance.

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