THE general president of SIPTU, Mr Edmund Browne, has made a strongly worded defence of his union's strike at Dublin hospitals and health centres on Thursday.
He was responding to a letter from the director general of IBEC, Mr John Dunne, who wrote to Mr Browne on Thursday expressing his concern that SIPTU was in breach of the industrial peace clause of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work and should use the appropriate channels to pursue its claim for an improved pension scheme.
In his reply Mr Browne says that the decision to withdraw services for four hours on Thursday was due to "the impossibly negative approach over the years by management in relation to our efforts to resolve serious deficiencies in the pension scheme".
"I am sure that you will agree, on reflection, that it is somewhat disingenuous to exalt the use of appropriate channels' when the employers have ignored the fundamentals of good industrial relations practice.
"I would respectfully suggest that IBEC direct its understandable concerns to the employers, the Local Government Staff Negotiations Board and the departments of Health and Finance whose obduracy, separately and collectively, have provoked this dispute action," he added.
Another four hour stoppage is planned for next Friday, and a 24 hour stoppage is planned for Wednesday, February 28th.