Industrial News
The bosses are not our partners... Vote NO to "Towards 2016"

---

Stephen Boyd

The Socialist Party is calling on workers to vote against the new national wage agreement and also to get organised within the unions to end "social partnership". Here we outline some of the reasons why.

Social partnership - a bonanza for the rich

In the last five years, wages have increased by 29% but inflation has gone up by 26%. Yet the profits of our so-called "partners" in big business have increased by 65%! "Social partnership" is a mechanism that facilitates the bosses to make bigger profits by increasing the exploitation of workers.

“Towards 2016” contains a 10% pay rise over 27 months. This will actually mean a 4.4% rise per annum at a time when inflation is 3.9% and predicted to rise to 5% by the end of 2006. At the end of the 27 months, workers may end up with a wage increase that just keeps pace with inflation or it may even mean a pay cut!

In order to get this paltry pay rise, you must agree to increased productivity and changes to your working conditions. You are prohibited from taking any form of industrial action if you disagree with your bosses’ demands or if they claim an inability to pay.

There are ever increasing financial pressures on workers. Rising interest rates, petrol prices, electricity, gas and VHI increases as well as stealth taxes will wipe out any pay increase you will get under this deal.

One-third of workers’ incomes are so low they are not liable to pay tax. Yet the right-wing union leaders have settled for a 0.5% increase for the low paid. That is an extra €1.50 per week for a worker on the minimum wage - this is an insult not a pay rise.

At a time of record profits, employers maintain an inability to pay clause, yet the union leaders abandoned their demand for a local bargaining clause. CWU leaders are recommending that their members in An Post vote for the new agreement even though postal workers still haven't received their pay rises from the last one because the company is claiming an inability to pay!

Race to the bottom

There is a widespread recognition amongst workers of the bosses’ agenda to drive down wages and erode working conditions in order to increase their profits – the "race to the bottom". This process of attacks on workers’ wages, conditions, job security and pensions and the government’s agenda of creeping privatisation is only just beginning. This offensive will intensify and become more severe and widespread in the next few years.

ICTU's claim that they have secured changes in employment legislation to stop the "race to the bottom" is not true. The new legislation only applies to companies that introduce compulsory redundancies - the workers at Irish Ferries were driven out under a "voluntary" redundancy plan. Another company could do exactly what Irish Ferries did and “Towards 2016” contains nothing to stop them. The bosses are increasingly getting around paying workers decent wages and employment legislation by employing workers through agencies or on temporary contracts. “Towards 2016” does nothing to stop this abuse and this will be an encouragement to big business to continue to replace full time pensionable jobs with agency and temporary staff. “Towards 2016” will speed up the "race to the bottom".

A principal reason why big business and the government have been able to pursue this onslaught on workers’ rights and the public sector is "social partnership". The so-called "partnership" process is based on the right-wing union leaders maintaining industrial peace and, in the last analysis, assisting the employers and the government to implement its neo-liberal agenda.

Workers can defend themselves from the "race to the bottom" by breaking from "social partnership" and struggling against the bosses and the government’s attacks.

End partnership

The only way to protect wages, jobs and conditions of all workers is for the unions to break from "social partnership" and instead use their full power to fight the bosses' agenda.

A return to free collective bargaining is the only alternative to "social partnership". Wage claims should be submitted for pay increases based on the real needs of working class people and their families. If the bosses and the government refuse to meet these claims, then industrial action will be needed to force them to concede.

Free collective bargaining achieved better wage rises for workers and it also ensured that union members had a real say through their shop stewards and local reps on wage negotiations and defending themselves from attempts by the bosses to make detrimental changes to their working conditions. Now, in a majority of unions, most decisions are made through the "partnership" process by unelected and unaccountable full time officials earning huge salaries and expenses.

A break from "social partnership" would be a start in turning the unions into democratic fighting organisations that defend workers’ rights and campaign against neo-liberalism. To achieve this we need to get organised. We need to build new activist groups - broad lefts within the unions to campaign to replace the right-wing full time and lay officials who support "partnership" and to transform the trade unions into a powerful force for change.

Industrial News
New agreement - A major assault on the public sector

---

Terry Kelleher, CPSU Trustee

'Towards 2016' is a disaster for public sector workers. The 10% on offer is not a cost of living pay rise but productivity payments for continual co-operation with change. If any section of the union refuses to co-operate with the proposed changes, they will be refused their pay rises.

While the previous partnership deal called on complete co-operation, the link to pay was not as clearly defined. The newest addition to the co-operation agenda is government decisions which commit us to co-operating with every thing our employer decides. This is the biggest blank cheque that has ever been offered to an employer.

This deal allows outsourcing "under certain conditions". However these conditions of backlogs and work peaks can be dealt with presently by employing more full time staff and through overtime.

The use of outsourcing for these occasions is a simple cost cutting exercise and is only the thin edge of the wedge. The overall strategy of this government is to hand over public services piece by piece to private hands who will run them for profit. Backlogs in work are inevitable as a recruitment embargo will be in place under this agreement.

The present leadership of the unions offer no opposition or alternative to this process. It has become quite clear what the future holds under partnership. Management will get what they want. They will just have to wait as the union leadership hoodwink the changes past their members. We can expect more PMDS, privatisation, increases in productivity and worsening of the rights and conditions of staff under the “Towards 2016” partnership deal.

Industrial News
A better partnership deal? - A repy to the SWP

---

The Socialist

The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) have publicly called for a better "social partnership" agreement.

One of its leading members, Kieran Allen, wrote in the Irish Times, 21 June 2006: "The deal should be sent back and the negotiators told to bring back an improved version that better reflects the contribution that workers have made to the Celtic Tiger".

On the same day on Five-Seven Live, RTE Radio One, in reply to the question "Is a bad deal better than no deal?", Kieran Allen replied: "That's not the choice, the choice is....union activists can tell their negotiators please go back and negotiate for a better deal".

Incredibly, the SWP who claim to be socialists, are now saying it is possible to have a better form of "partnership" between the bosses and workers. The Socialist Party rejects this argument. It is not possible to have partnership between workers and the bosses. All such agreements are designed to increase the profits of big business and to stop industrial action.

We are campaigning for an end to "social partnership" and for full independence for the trade union movement.

The Socialist Party stands for:

• An end to "social partnership" - for a return to free collective bargaining.

• A 35 hour week with no loss of pay.

• A minimum wage of €12 an hour tax free with no exemptions.

• No to privatisation, public private partnerships and private finance initiatives.

• Stop all outsourcing in the public and private sectors.

• Full employment rights from day one of employment.

• Scrap the anti-union laws.

• For democratic trade unions to fight in the interests of their members on pay, conditions and job security.

• Full time union officials should be regularly elected and receive the average wage of those they represent.