Skip to content
Lisbon Treaty

SIPTU Statement on Lisbon Treaty

Date Released: 12 Dec 2008

Commenting on the conversation at the EU Summit in relation to the Lisbon Treaty, Jack O’Connor, General President of SIPTU, Ireland’s largest trade union, said today:

“I welcome the belated recognition that action to protect people’s rights at work is central to any prospect of endorsement of the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland.  This is clear from the results of the Government’s own Millward Browne IMS Survey which found that concern regarding people’s rights at work was identified as the top priority above other issues.  It also corresponds with the results of various polls conducted on Referendum day, which held that workers across the country overwhelmingly rejected the proposition.”

Mr. O’Connor went on to say:

“It is critical that the wounds inflicted on the social infrastructure protecting people’s rights at work by a number of controversial recent decisions of the European Court of Justice are addressed.  And it is equally critical that workers are afforded the internationally recognised human right to avail of the benefits of collective bargaining without fear of victimisation or discrimination.”

He concluded by saying that:

“Any formula for presentation to the Irish people which does not address these issues comprehensively is doomed to failure before it starts.  Irish people are overwhelmingly pro-European. Irish workers understand the enormous gains which accrued to them over most of the period of our membership of the EU.  They have and they will endorse ‘Social Europe’, however they will not support the savagery of the unfettered free-marketeerism and the ‘race to the bottom’ in the workplace which has become pre-eminent in recent years.”






Previous and Next: May Day Celebrations | General Secretary Election 2008