The
stresses and strains in Irish society are increasingly obvious. As we
have explained before the crisis is affecting all layers within
society. More than that it is clear that the consciousness of all
classes has been affected and that big events are being prepared. The
Sunday Business Post printed an article called Union Blues on August 16th
that summarised the situation as a section of the bourgeois see it. We
make no apology for quoting it in its entirety because its implications
are important for all workers in Ireland and because we are only first
in the queue for the rest of Europe also.The article begins:
“The
government is bracing itself for an autumn and winter of strife and
discontent, as trade union members mobilise against public spending
cuts, pressure on both public and private sector wages and cut-price
redundancies by cash-strapped firms which are being forced to
restructure or close altogether.
Hardly
a week goes by without a union leader declaring social partnership
dead, though the wistful note of many of these pronouncements suggests
they are issued in the hope of eliciting an ‘‘Oh no it’s not!"-type
response from Government Buildings.
High level sources say
that contacts are continuing between union leaders and top officials,
though for the foreseeable future the meaningful engagement will be on
the streets and the picket lines, rather than the boardroom tables in
the Taoiseach’s department.”
For
several months now Fightback has been explaining that relying on
“social partnership” in a slump is a disastrous policy for the trade
union leaders to follow. We explained that sooner or later the trade
union leaders would be forced to move. The reason for this is pressure
from below. The same pressure that is that brought about the campaign
against the Pension levy and the monster demonstration in February.The SBP article also comments on this:
"According
to several sources and representatives who spoke to The Sunday Business
Post last week, there is anger among ordinary members throughout the
trade union movement – and a willingness to translate that anger into
industrial action.
This
is the first time I’ve seen such real anger and unrest," said one union
source last week. ‘‘More and more people are willing to take out the
sleeping bags."As if to demonstrate the point, employees of a Mitchelstown DIY store began a sit-in last Thursday over redundancy notices.Trade
unionists at all levels of the movement spoke of a willingness to
translate this anger into action. There is a growing fear in government
circles that – allied to the difficulties the coalition will face in
passing the Lisbon Treaty, as well as in agreeing and then passing a
vicious budget – it could face wide scale industrial unrest on a scale
not seen for decades."
The
biggest obstacle in the way of a successful fightback against the
draconian policies of the government, An Bord Snip, the levies and the
bosses assault on the working class is a weak policy on behalf of the
trade union and especially the Labour leaders. The article continues:
For
a government which often seems to be teetering on the brink of a
complete meltdown, it is a frightening prospect. Few things worry
Fianna Fáil TDs as much as crowds outside the gates of Leinster House –
and outside their clinics on a Saturday. Witness the recent departure
of the two Sligo TDs, for example. Brian Cowen’s administration has
hardly projected an image of stability and control in recent months.
It
is time for the trade union movement to go on the offensive," said
Patricia McKeown, outgoing president of the Irish Congress of Trade
Unions (Ictu) told delegates at the recent conference. Incoming Ictu
president and Siptu general president Jack O’Connor promised ‘‘the
prospect of a sustained and relentless industrial campaign conducted
workplace by workplace’’. He sought to send an explicit message to
government and employers:
While we will take punishment, we will inflict it as well."”
The
only way to fight the bosses attacks is to fight fire with fire. That
means a militant programme of industrial action. In Latin America they
have a slogan “fabrica cerrada… fabrica tomada”
Factory closed … factory taken over. Any factory that threatens closure
or redundancies should be occupied and should be nationalised under
workers control and management. Jack O’Connor is echoing a mood and is
making some of the right noises. The government are in a serious crisis
and they can be beaten if the unions are resolute enough.
Meanwhile
it’s clear that in the private sector the gloves are off. Not that this
news comes as a surprise, particularly after the Thomas Cook occupation
the other week. But its also evident from the TEEU dispute.
The article continues:
‘Tough-guy
behaviour from some private sector employers has stoked union anger.
Several employers’ groups are committed to, and will probably succeed
in, destroying the system of registered employment agreements (REAs)
and joint labour committees (JLCs) which set pay rates for whole
sectors of employment – from fast food restaurants to electrical
contractors. Legal challenges in the autumn seem likely to undermine
this whole edifice.
At
Dublin Port, an operating company called Marine Terminals is involved
in a dispute with Siptu over redundancy terms and an end to conditions
which the company regarded as unsustainably restrictive.The
pickets are out onsite, and the company has hired private security –
not just any security, but Control Risks, a firm which uses ex-British
special forces personnel and provides protection in Iraq, among other
places. (Our emphasis Fightback)
"It already has turned nasty," said a union official. Both sides accuse the other of intimidation.’
It
is clear that the situation in the private sector has radically
changed. We have explained that disputes like the TEEU strike are of
vital importance to the whole of the working class. The reason is
clear. If the employers manage to smash up the REA’s then that opens
the barn doors wide for the bosses to savage our wages and conditions.
As such an injury to one is for sure an injury to all. Using ex British
Special Forces security guards is a sign of how determined the bosses
are, but its also a direct provocation. What’s next are Thomas Cook
going to transport strikers to Australia?
What
about the Public Sector? An Bord Snip is on the near horizon and
government departments, HSE and council workers are in the firing line.
The article goes on to look at the position of the trade union leaders:
‘Heavy-handed
behaviour can strengthen the hand of unions in the battle for public
support. But this doesn’t really happen in the public sector – which is
where the unions’ clout really exists. Instead, many managers complain
that unionised workforces can, in some respects, be extraordinarily
difficult to manage.”
"[The
public sector] are people who have clout and can stand up for
themselves," said one union official. Other sources also attested to
the extent to which public servants felt they were being made
scapegoats in much public debate. Over half of all union members are in the public sector. They are angry, and they are ready to act.
And
yet the unions are not in as strong a position as it might seem on
first inspection. The public-private imbalance weakens their case. Many
of their leaders do not believe that widespread strikes in the public
sector are a viable tactic – they simply would not command sufficient
public support, or worse, could lead to a backlash against the public
sector and trade unions in general from a private sector workforce
increasingly in fear of its jobs.
The
public sector unions are a busted flush," said one senior Labour Party
figure privately some months ago. ‘‘An 8 per cent pay cut, and they
can’t stop it? They’re finished."
The
bitter pill that many workers in the public sector feel they have been
made to swallow won’t get any sweeter in the coming weeks. Under the
terms of the pay agreement concluded just last year, but since
abandoned, public sector workers were due a 3.5 per cent pay increase
on September 1. They won’t see this now.
In
addition, the terrors contained in the Bord Snip Nua report seem likely
to be firmly on the agenda for autumn budget discussions, following a
decision by the government to instruct government departments to find
savings based on Snip’s recommendations.
If
there was one overarching message of the report, it was that many areas
of the public service are over provisioned and unnecessarily expensive
This has many echoes with the sort of argument that was used worldwide in
1980’s to justify a policy of austerity and vicious attacks not just on
jobs, but on the poorest and most vulnerable people, The ones that is
who are reliant on public services for support.
‘There
was no finding on public sector pay because this was not in Colm
McCarthy’s terms of reference – but cutting, say, the dozens of
allowances enjoyed as effective pay top-ups by some groups would be
felt just as keenly as a pay cut; more keenly, in some quarters.
Yet
when the government is openly trying to prepare the ground for cuts in
social welfare, the minimum wage and child benefit, it will be
difficult to overlook public sector remuneration in its entirety. This
would infuriate public sector workers, but could they win an industrial
relations conflict with the government?
This
is the question that trade union leaders – and many of their more
thoughtful members – are deeply unsure about. They watched the
pharmacists be soundly beaten by a combination of the weakness of their
own case and the determination and reawakened communication skills of
Minister for Health Mary Harney. Now they wonder what sort of public
support would there be for them.In
public debate, too, the unions’ case appears stronger than it is.
Strong rhetoric masks underlying weaknesses. Union leaders such as Eoin
Ronayne of the CPSU and several teaching unions leaders have repeatedly
insisted that their members ‘‘did not cause the economic crisis’’.
At
one level, this is entirely correct. However, the country’s fiscal
crisis – the huge deficit in the public finances that threatens the
state’s financial viability – has come about because the costs of the
public sector now vastly outweigh the tax revenues collected to pay for
its public services. The increase in costs in the public sector has led
to a situation where many of our public servants – teachers, doctors,
gardaí, higher civil servants – are among the best paid in Europe, if
not the world. This is a direct result of demands from those same
union.
But
hang on a minute the problems with the state’s financial viability are
the fault of the capitalist bankers. The working class never caused
them. Why should we pay? No wonder workers are angry.
Leaders
representing public sector unions also insist that you can’t cut your
way out of a recession; again, only partly true. Cuts to public
spending are an essential part of any solution to a fiscal crisis of
the kind we are now experiencing.In
fact, experience (including recent experience in this country) suggests
that solving the fiscal crisis cannot be done without cuts. And
the overarching criticism – that the crisis in the international
financial system and the attendant economic crash somehow vindicates
what unions have been saying for 20 years – doesn’t stand up well under
examination either.The unions’ leaderships were more a part of the political establishment in Bertie Ahern’s Ireland than most politicians.Union leaders had more influence than many cabinet ministers.
The
country we have today is, through the partnership process, partly their
creation. Suggestions that they were utterly opposed to the economic
model of the past decade and a half are an attempt to rewrite history.
These suggestions are perfectly understandable, but they are false.
This
adds up to a call for a Thatcherite assault on the public sector. In
some ways its worse, its back to the lunatic ideas of the 1930’s where
capitalist governments cut wages, further cutting the market, making
the crisis deeper, longer and worse. Leon Trotsky pointed out at the
time that the trade union leaders under those sort of condition would
continually seek accommodations with the bosses and the state, but that
these would break down because of pressure from below. ICTU should be
preparing for one day general strike against An Bord Snip. Every
service cut, wage cut or redundancy should be fought. The unions must
organise the fight back at a local level the only guarantee of victory
is a united struggle around a socialist alternative to the capitalist
crisis.The SBP article concludes:
Some
union members and activists sense in the economic crisis a moment of
historic opportunity for the left, a chance to remake the economic and
political paradigm in Ireland.
Others
sense danger if they are seen to try to protect sheltered sectors with
brittle rhetoric and dated tactics. As they prepare for the storms of
autumn, the union leaders have much to ponder.
The
truth is that this is a turning point for the trade unions in Ireland.
Either there will be more fruitless talks about talks or a fighting
programme that confronts every twist and turn of the bosses and Cowen’s
assault on the working class. Sooner or later Cowen is going to blunder
into a generalised confrontation with the working class. We need to arm
the labour and trade union movement with a socialist alternative and a
Marxist leadership.
Article first posted on the Fightback site of the Marxists in Ireland
