Liverpool commemorates James Larkin and his legacy

Hundreds of trade unionists marched through Liverpool yesterday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Dublin lock out - Ireland's most important industrial dispute. The heavily policed march started from Larkin's birthplace in south Liverpool and ended at the Pier Head where CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes and his Irish counterpart Cormac O'Dalaigh gave speeches about Larkin and his relevance today: http://www.cwu.org/billy-hayes/?p=901

Key Irish Unions reject austerity driven concessions

Membership ballots of general union Siptu and teachers union INTO have decisively rejected the proposed new 3 year agreement between the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Irish Government. The proposals would lead to longer working hours, an increment freeze, pay cuts for higher earners and other detrimental measures. Previously the Government had threatened to impose cuts through legislation and - given the failure to secure sufficient workforce consent for a €1 billion reduction in the public services pay bill - such an approach could lead to unprecedented levels of industrial action after years of social partnership in Ireland:
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/public-sector-pay-deal-collapses-as-siptu-votes-against-proposals-1.1361868

Irish unions going cold on Europe

In this month's Union Post ICTU general secretary David Begg warns of a “growing disaffection” with the European project within the trade union movement. Speaking to a gathering of EU officials and diplomats in Dublin last month, he said: “It is imperative that confidence in Social Europe be rebuilt. Expecting workers and social welfare recipients to carry the burden of maro-economic adjustment is unfair and unreasonable."

Concession bargaining divides Irish public service unions

A new 3 year agreement between the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Irish Government will lead to longer working hours, an increment freeze, pay cuts for higher earners and other detrimental measures. The Government had threatened to impose cuts through legislation but will now secure a €1 billion reduction in the public services pay bill - if a majority of unions back the package in upcoming membership ballots:
http://www.lrc.ie/documents/2013/LRC%20Proposals%20_FINAL.pdf

Irish Unions - from 'social partnership' to mass protest

#feb9demo The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) mobilised over 110,000 people in a massive protest against austerity. Marches and rallies under the ICTU slogan of 'Lift the Burden - Jobs not Debt' were held in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford:
http://www.irishtimes.com
/newspaper/breaking/2013/0209/breaking2.html

Lift the burden: Jobs not debt

On 9 February, 'the people of Ireland will be on the streets in their tens of thousands' against crippling debt repayments that will cost 30,000 jobs, ICTU General Secretary David Begg tells Union Post. Demonstrations have been called in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Sligo.
“We have been saddled with a €64 billion bank debt burden that eliminates any possibility of economic recovery and guarantees years of continued stagnation", added David.
   UNION Post also runs a tribute to Inez McCormack who died last month.
http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-february-2013/

Troika should be in sackcloth & ashes for their sins

ICTU general secretary David Begg has accused the Troika’s “neoliberal zealots” of causing untold misery to the Irish people by wrecking Ireland's economy. The Troika of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank are wedded to a strict neoliberal approach to dealing with the deficit, he tells this issue of Union Post. The magazine also covers the 20 October rally, a UNISON survey showing nurses are under huge workload pressures and Dave Prentis's demolition of regional pay. http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-october-2012/

Patricia nobbles minister on welfare cuts

The latest issue of Union Post carries a pic of UNISON Northern Ireland regional secretary Patricia McKeown button-holing Stormont health minister Edwin Poots as he rushed back to work during the unions' June 25 protest against welfare cuts. See the story and more ICTU news at http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-august-2012/

Leading Irish unions call for 'NO' vote in EU treaty referendum

Back in March 2012, the European TUC denounced the EU Fiscal Compact as ‘leading to permanent austerity’ and stated its unequivocal opposition to the Treaty signed by 25 EU countries: www.etuc.org/a/9762
 Three major Irish unions, Unite, Mandate and the Civil Public and Service Union (CPSU) - which have a combined membership of 100,000 - are refusing to acquiesce to pressure from the corporate and political elite and in a principled trade union stand against austerity are calling on working people to vote NO in Ireland’s referendum on the Treaty being held this Thursday:
http://www.thejournal.ie/trade-unions-join-forces-in-calling-for-no-vote-on-fiscal-compact-465271-May2012/?utm_source=shortlink

Another Irish Union calls for No vote in EU Fiscal Treaty referendum

The 45,000 strong Mandate retail workers union is calling on its members to vote NO in the May 31 Irish referendum on the EU Fiscal Treaty. General Secretary John Douglas said: "The imposition of austerity measures across Europe has resulted in over 25 million workers unemployed, of which 5.5 million are under the age of 25. This is a scandal, human waste of mega proportions – but still, our government at the behest of our European banking masters continues with these failed policies and ideologies, condemning future generations of Irish citizens to a mere existence on the margins of society."
http://www.mandate.ie/News/Mandate/513/mandate-trade-union-to-advise-its-45000-members-to-vote-no-to-proposed-fiscal-treaty.aspx

Irish government attempts to roll back Agency Workers rights

Unions in Ireland are resisting last ditch attempts to secure their agreement to a six month qualifying period for equal treatment for agency workers (ahead of the 5 December deadline for its introduction). Elsewhere, the EU directive has been applied from day one, apart from the UK where the TUC conceded a 13 week qualifying period in 2008 to the then Labour government: http://www.icem.org/en/73-Contract-and-Agency-Labour/4773-SIPTU-Fights-Attempts-to-Dilute-EU-Agency-Workers-Directive

How quickly angels turn to devils

"One day [health workers] are angels but when they exercise their rights, they are devils – how quickly angels turn to devils”, warns UNISON’s Patricia McKeown in the latest issue of the ICTU Union Post, as a 'hostile' press gears up for 30 November. http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-november-2011/

The new Irish President

The election of Michael D Higgins as President of the Republic of Ireland will help lift some of the doom and gloom across the Irish sea. A socialist and Republican, Higgins has never been afraid to articulate his radical vision: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/
news/content/view/full/111347

Commenting on his election victory the Irish Times said that the outcome was a vindication for Mr. Higgins's distinct personal values. "He is a politician who has displayed single-mindedness, a voice for the oppressed and disadvantaged, and a supporter of campaigns that sometimes ran contrary to the populist view - but always calibrated by standards of justice and the public interest. Most significantly, given the office he will hold, he articulates a vision for our Republic, tangible optimism in relation to its future and an acute sense of place with culture at its heart".

A poet as well as a politician Higgins's words seemed apt on the occasion of his success

"We make an affirmation.
The stuff of hope beckons.
Out of the darkness we step,
And blink into the new light."

MS

Troika warning in Ireland

ICTU general secretary David Begg has warned Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the EU/ECB/IMF Troika is using Ireland as a "social laboratory” to test out its economic policies. See more Congress stories in the special issue of 'Union Post'. http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-august-2011/

EU policy risks Irish default

CONGRESS general secretary David Begg has warned a major EU economic gathering that “Ireland is being pushed towards default” because of policies governing the EU/IMF/ECB bailout. While acknowledging that domestic policy failures played a key role in the crash, Mr Begg claimed the EU and European Central Bank also shared a responsibility, reports the ICTU's Union Post  http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-may-2011/

Easter, 1916 by William Butler Yeats

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,

UNISON Northern Ireland on Good Friday Agreement anniversary - much done, more still to do

At a packed Galway House the whole of UNISON's Northern Ireland region ‘Team Connect’ celebrated the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement but lamented the fact that after 13 years UNISON members now face a budget which attacks members and their communities like nothing ever seen before.

UNISON President joins health worker protest in Belfast

A noisy and colourful demonstration lined the middle and sides of the Falls Road in Belfast today as hundreds of UNISON nurses and staff from the Royal Hospital protested against proposed health cuts in Northern Ireland.

Ireland at austerity breaking point - ICTU

In a case of chickens coming home to roost, the europhile Irish Congress of Trade Unions has warned that Ireland is close to exceeding the limits to 'political acceptability of austerity' and that the EU and European Central Bank are "not without responsibility" for the current crisis in Ireland:http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=2765357;s=rollingnews.htm

ICTU: 'Vote for Jobs and Growth'

The ICTU sets out key poll issues in February's Union Post which also covers privatisation, nurses campaign and the struggle in Wisconsin http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/union-post-february-2011/