FORTHCOMING LEGISLATION on joint labour committees and other wage-setting mechanisms for low-paid workers will be the litmus test for the Labour Party in government, the head of the State’s largest trade union has said.
Addressing Siptu’s biennial delegate conference in Ennis last night, Jack O’Connor said the union would be rigorous in scrutinising the draft legislation.
“We will make sure tens of thousands of low-paid workers know the full story and which politicians are representing their interests, or otherwise. Cutting their pay will contribute absolutely nothing to economic recovery, indeed the reverse. Many politicians know this full well but they are running scared of a well-endowed business lobby focused only on maximising profit.”
“This legislation will become the litmus test for Labour in Government one way or the other. We are absolutely confident it will not allow the lower-paid to be fed to the wolves, because rolling over would constitute such a gross betrayal as to render them unworthy of the name of a Labour Party ever again.”
Mr O’Connor also said Siptu would strongly oppose privatisation of State-owned airports, ports or energy utilities. However, he warned against “knee-jerk” reactions. He also maintained that while it would not be possible to disregard the EU-IMF-ECB troika agreement, it was possible “to reject the exhortations from the stockbroker belt, demanding even greater austerity at the expense of those least able to bear it”.
He was also critical of the “drift towards the privatisation of State assets”. “Fine Gael’s NewERA policy envisaged wholesale divestment. Labour managed to trim it back to a maximum of up to €2 billion in non-strategic assets, and then only in circumstances where market conditions were right, in the programme for government . . . However, the EU-ECB-IMF team is now demanding a €5 billion sale. The idea of the people of an island country on the periphery of Europe handing over control of their crucially important ports and airports, or their capacity to generate and distribute energy or the utilities that are essential to sustaining civilised existence, so that they could be asset-stripped, is absurd in the extreme. We will oppose this vigorously.”
He said the budget would reveal the true character of the Government. “It will become obvious whether it is one which affords parity of esteem to working people or whether it is little more than another committee of the rich.”
The union leader said working people had disproportionately borne the brunt of the cuts over the last four budgets.
