Major investment in the health service is an absolute priority, the SIPTU vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor, has warned the Government.
At a regional meeting of shop stewards in Kilkenny yesterday he called on trade unionists to support the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in his battle at the Cabinet table with "free marketeers" to secure more funds.
"No one can deny the health service is still suffering the effects of more than a decade of serious under-funding", Mr O'Connor said. "Expenditure on health, as a proportion of GDP, is considerably lower than the EU average."
Seventy per cent of people on waiting lists for cardio-vascular surgery had been waiting for more than 12 months and there had been a reduction of 3,000 public beds in acute hospitals since 1980.
"Any minister for health, regardless of his political allegiance, who appears to be genuinely committed to the radical reform of the health services should reasonably expect the support of trade unionists, especially in circumstances where he appears to have encountered a setback in his battle with the free marketeers in the Government."
Mr O'Connor said the free market philosophy dominating discussions at the Cabinet table was undermining social partnership by "appropriating the consensus model for their own purposes".
"The Government's policy of redistributing wealth upwards to the rich under the guise of social partnership lies at the heart of many recent industrial relations difficulties.
"If the thrust of public policy is based on the `grab as much as you can philosophy' instead of enhancing the quality of life, then it is inevitable that people will feel left behind and will do whatever they can to catch up."
Describing some of the interunion membership rows during the last years as among the most damaging he had experienced, Mr O'Connor said the constitution of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had been "seriously flouted". They had the potential to destroy the fragile unity of the ICTU.
In a clear reference to the recent disputes in Iarnrod Eireann, Aer Lingus and the ESB, he said: "Everyone with the interests of workers at heart should act immediately to bring this to an end and to strengthen Congress so as to avoid any repetition of recent events."
Pointing out that union membership had been growing steadily, despite the attempts of some to suggest otherwise, he said there was absolutely no justification for inter-union rivalry on the scale of recent events.
"Enemies of organised workers must have been rubbing their hands with glee. Trade unionists should focus their energies on strengthening our organisations because consensus can only be built on the basis of strength. There is no point in appealing to the better nature of capitalism, as it has none."