The electrical and engineering union TEEU today threatened “unprecedented” disruption to public services during a national strike scheduled for March 30th and said it would serve strike notice on the Government and other employer groups tomorrow.
Strike notice will be served on the Government and other main employer bodies, including Ibec and the Construction Industry Federation, tomorrow, the TEEU said in a statement.
About 45,000 workers are represented by the trade union.
General secretary-designate Eamon Devoy said that given the short amount of time left to serve notice and the large number of employments involved the union had decided to “simplify the process by notifying the main employer organisations of the proposed industrial action on March 30th”.
“Everyone knows that it is a national strike and there are no precedents for this,” he said. “We have to take this action because of the failure of the Government and the employer bodies to heed the national day of protest on February 21st.”
Mr Devoy said there was only a week left for the Government and employers to enter into talks on the Ictu 10-point plan for a social pact, and to “honour the terms of the national agreement they freely entered into last September”.
“Failure to do so will result in unprecedented disruption across the economy with only the delivery of emergency services guaranteed.”
Mr Devoy said 90 per cent of TEEU members voted in favour of the ICTU plan and 80 per cent voted for industrial action.
He said strike action would not take place in employments which have honoured the terms of the agreement.
One of the country’s largest trade unions, Unite, has said ballots in the private sector on the planned nationwide day of strikes scheduled for Monday week are in general “on a knife edge”, with workers in some cases voting not to take part.
Unite said on Friday its members would be going on strike for the day at New Ireland Assurance, the first large private sector company where such action has been confirmed. Unite has 60,000 members in the Republic and represents workers in both the public and private sectors, including those in finance, manufacturing and energy.
Tens of thousands of teachers, nurses and other public sector workers have already voted to join in the day of protest organised by Ictu. However, the leve of participation in the private sector is not yet clear.