HOW DOES a trade union lose sympathy and forfeit public support for its industrial action? The Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU), by so ineptly handling its industrial relations dispute with the Government, has shown how this is done. The backlog of unprocessed passport applications – more than 50,000 and rising – and the lengthening queues and angry scenes outside the Molesworth Street passport office in Dublin have caused great public anger.
Applicants have waited in line for hours to collect their passports, often without success, and at some personal cost and inconvenience. What the union characterises as low-level industrial action (a ban on overtime and on the employment of temporary workers to handle the increased seasonal demand for passports) has had disproportionate consequences for those denied their passports. For some, holidays were cancelled and money lost; for others, job and business opportunities were missed.
The CPSU has made a serious miscalculation. A work-to-rule by members was meant to force the Government to address its concerns on pay cuts. The public, it was assumed, would blame the Government for a malfunctioning passport service. Instead, the public’s wrath has been directed at the CPSU. The union has been blamed for inflexibility in the conduct of its dispute and for punishing those its members are paid to serve. Its action is damaging rather than helping its case. Yesterday, the CPSU issued protective strike notice on behalf of members working at passport offices. This would enable the union to take strike action should members’ pay be docked for failing to perform their duties.
In parallel with an escalating industrial relations problem at the passport offices, the Government is engaged in talks with trade unions on pay and reform of the public service. But why the broader trade union movement, in the context of these discussions, has not addressed this high-profile dispute is difficult to understand. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is pressing for an agreement that it claims can transform the provision of public services. But what the public is witnessing daily in Molesworth Street undermines that contention.
A passport is not merely a travel document; it is also a designation of citizenship. Citizens of this Republic have constitutional rights which include the entitlement to travel. That individual right should never be compromised or threatened least of all by ill-advised trade union action.