SIPTU has urged its 200,000 members to vote for Labour Party candidates in the European and local elections. Four Euro-candidates, Mr Sean Butler, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, Ms Paula Desmond and Mr John Hume, are SIPTU members, as are 40 of Labour's 370 local candidates.
The union "particularly welcomes" Mr De Rossa's proposal for a social charter "to strengthen the rights of workers in today's global economy", it says in a special edition of SIPTU Report. The charter calls for paid parental leave and other "family friendly" initiatives, better rights for part-time and atypical workers, five weeks' minimum holidays and moves towards a 35-hour week.
SIPTU president Mr Jimmy Somers said yesterday that "June 11th provides an important opportunity for union members and their families to strengthen the influence of Labour on local councils and in the increasingly important European Parliament. Here in Ireland we require a far more active role for local authorities in tackling the disastrous rise in house prices and rented accommodation, improving the living and working environment, providing local childcare facilities, developing the transport infrastructure and sustaining our economic development."
The bulletin welcomes the merger of Democratic Left and Labour and says that this has enabled the party to run a record number of candidates. The two Labour candidates in the Euroelections who are not SIPTU members, Ms Bernie Malone and Mr Ger Gibbons, are not profiled in the bulletin, but readers are asked to vote for them too.
The union collects 50p a week from most members for its political levy. Only a fraction opt out of the levy. This year the union is providing £300 to each local authority candidate and £1,000 to each Euro-candidate.
As SIPTU is affiliated to the Labour Party, only its candidates get the relatively small financial contributions, and the politically more useful union endorsement.