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2005

The future is for workers too!

Date Released: 13 Oct 2005

Delegates and friends

Welcome to the historic city of Cork for our Biennial Delegate Conference. It is taking place against the background of an environment laden with the potential to realise the ambitions of the generations who founded and built our Union around the aspiration for a full, free and happy life for all.

Economically and politically the trend over the past decade has laid the basis for securing a standard of living and a quality of life for all those who live here, which is equal to - or even better than - the best in the world. However, there are those whose only preoccupation is the accumulation of wealth, and their political allies, whose activities are casting a dark shadow on the future and who may well succeed in sabotaging all that has been achieved to date.

Last week's announcement by the Decommissioning Body confirming that the IRA had placed its arms beyond use has cleared the way for a dramatic transformation of the course of the history of the people of this island. I want to congratulate all those courageous and visionary people, regardless of their allegiance or political outlook, who contributed to that historic development.

I believe I would be echoing your sentiments as well, by urging all those in positions of influence to seize the potential of the moment, which offers the prospect of a fair and democratic resolution of the age-old conflicts, afflicting the peoples of this island.

Against the background of the staggered peace process, economic recovery in Northern Ireland has been sluggish. Private investment has remained lethargic and the public sector contributes disproportionately to economic activity and the provision of employment. However, it is reasonable to expect that activity will be stimulated in the light of last week's announcement.

In the Republic, organised workers have gained the highest increase in real pay - i.e. pay over inflation over the last three years - achieved over any similar period in the previous thirty. We have also succeeded in winning improved statutory redundancy terms which had been on our agenda for many years, and we have secured statutory support - albeit minimal - for the right to be represented by a trade union for the first time in the entire history of our State. Of course all of this has been achieved in the context of a decade of unprecedentedly sustained economic growth, during which corporate profits have been inflated to an enormous degree.

This has been largely due to the productivity of our workforce, but a proportion of it is also regrettably due to a growing culture of exploitation on the one hand, accompanied by excessive profit taking and a growing rip-off culture on the other.

While workers who are in unions have made some progress, employment standards among the growing numbers of unorganised in many sectors of the economy, have been declining.

This is manifesting itself in many ways - extending from insecurity of contracts to poor quality working environments, to the obscene spectacle of migrant workers building our infrastructure on half the minimum wage, and service workers on the shipping lines which ply our waters, working for as little as one euro an hour. This affords us a glimpse of the future, if the more rapacious elements contesting for dominance among the employers and their neo liberal allies have their way.

The scale of the threat to standards of employment - painstakingly won over the past thirty years - cannot be over stated. This is not some prospect of the dim distant future. Indeed, according to the estimates of the Revenue Commissioners for this year: 38% of PAYE earners are on less than €20,000 and 57% are on less than €30,000, and, according to a recent survey only one-third of private sector workers have occupational pensions.

This contrast also applies in the wider economy, as reflected in the recent UN Human Development Report, which concluded that we now live in the second wealthiest country on earth but that we are also one of the most unequal - with the third highest level of poverty in eighteen industrialised countries surveyed.

Some believe that this degree of inequality is necessary. We reject that analysis, not only because we find extremes of wealth and poverty morally and ethically repugnant, but because they are economically detrimental as well.

Actually, our economic miracle is more fragile than many realise, just over half of our GNP, almost €70b annually, is due to the consumption of goods and services. This in turn is supported by a household sector debt to disposable income ratio, which is estimated will reach 147% this year. This is the highest level of personal household debt in our history and the second in the whole of Europe. Our booming construction industry - which accounts for 12.5% of the total numbers employed in the country - also depends on a high degree of debt. And manufacturing - which contributes 30% of GDP - is highly vulnerable to globalisation.

Future growth will require a great deal more innovation and integration of the social and economic dimensions than the simplistic confusion of "competitiveness" with "cheapness" repetitively droned out by the employer organisations. The economic success of the last two decades, due in no small measure to so called Social Partnership and the productivity of Irish workers, has been about catching up. Positive demographics, which will now start to level out, have also been central to the mix.

Meeting the challenge of tomorrow will mean realising the potential of the existing workforce and those, who by reason of their role as carers are unable to participate, as well as properly integrating considerable numbers of migrant workers.

This must entail the most radical programme of reskilling ever undertaken on this island. It must involve significant measures to incentivise and support adults returning to education and training. It highlights the necessity for paid educational leave and for fulltime training for redundant workers without loss of income - as is the case, for example, in Denmark.

It must finally mean delivery on the long sought demand of the trade union movement for an integrated childcare policy, which is focussed on the needs of children and supporting family life, and extending paid maternity and parental leave - increasing annual holidays and dramatically increasing state supported childcare, as well as assistance with the cost of obtaining it.

It must also mean the development of a proper infrastructure of care for our elder citizens, to whom we owe much of our current prosperity. Indeed, among all the appalling social ills of our time, the recent exposures of their mistreatment - from illegally withholding their pensions, to their incarceration in inadequately staffed and equipped institutions, inappropriately described as nursing homes - must rank as the worst indictment of all.

This in turn highlights the absurdity of the failure to support our Voluntary Health Insurance system and the principle of community rating - in the absence of a universally accessible and fully comprehensive health service, free to all at the point of delivery. It must also entail addressing the deficiencies in our healthcare system - particularly in the area of primary care - because, apart from the morality and justice of it all, we simply cannot afford the aggravated deferred cost of inadequate prevention. We fully recognise the dynamics of the global economy and the necessity for real "competitiveness" but that should not be confused with "cheapness" and it should not precipitate a "Race to the Bottom" in the workplace, or in the economy and ultimately in society.

Indeed, it is precisely those countries which prioritise public investment and which have strong trade union movements, which repeatedly emerge at the head of international competitiveness leagues. And those who are attracted by the notion of the proximity of Boston over Berlin should note that travelling from here it lies in the general direction of New Orleans! Indeed, contrary to the theory that inequality is necessary - the opposite is true today - equality is actually essential. In fact we are now living in an era in which it must become an intrinsic component of a strategy for growth and success.

Those who are opposed to this approach insist that it cannot be pursued without increasing taxation. They may well be right, although there is a current Budget surplus of over €4 billion - equal to more than 3% of GNP.

Things have not been helped by the forfeiture of more than €3.6b in handouts to the corporate sector over the past four years - or tax shelters stimulating investment in sectors which are already oversupplied.

History has taught us the need for a balanced approach on taxation. But the balance is wrong if - while the economy is booming - hospitals are unable to cope and classrooms are overcrowded, while at the same time capital gains are taxed at less than half the rate of PAYE incomes, and a worker on average industrial earnings is taxed at the same rate as someone on more than €200,000 plus per annum.

Others have an alternative strategy. This is based on a definition of "competitiveness" which could be more appropriately termed "cheapness" and which views social infrastructure as an optional extra - always paid for by someone else. It insists on a mé fein approach to public spending but never opposes the grants, subsidies and allowances doled out to business.

The central ingredient of this strategy is the direct exploitation of thousands of vulnerable migrant workers and the use of them as a means of accelerating the "Race to the Bottom", undermining the degree of security and quality of employment it has taken organised workers half a century to achieve. It is characterised by a marked and ruthless hostility towards trade unionism, which it views, correctly, as the impediment to the realisation of this bleak vision of the future.

Those who favour this approach are among the most zealous promoters of privatisation despite the lessons of its flagship Eircom, which left the taxpayer picking up the tab for the development of our broadband infrastructure which has now fallen well behind other developed countries.

But no! The privatisation juggernaut rolls on. Next in line is Aer Lingus - another strategically critical company for our island economy - after that, who knows, our aviation infrastructure? Our ports and harbours? or, and, make no mistake about it delegates - privatisation of potentially profitable parts of our Health Service is on the way as well.

We have confronted the Race to the Bottom" across virtually the whole spectrum of our work. From the threatened privatisation of public transport and the so called restructuring of our aviation infrastructure, through outsourcing in industry, to the scandalous revelations in the construction sector, to direct and blatant displacement of union members in Irish Ferries - the list goes on.

We have authorised industrial action in several instances to defend jobs, pay and pension rights, and we will continue to do so whenever the necessity arises. And, as you may recall, we refused to participate in the talks on the review of Sustaining Progress until key issues, like the industrial inspectorate, conditions on public contracts, and measures to protect pension rights in the private sector were placed on the agenda.

But, at the same time, we have also been to the forefront in key negotiations in public transport, offering innovative solutions to enhance the quality of service, whilst simultaneously defending employment standards.

In the aviation sector we have demonstrated a capacity to negotiate change and promote entirely new concepts and alliances to address infrastructural deficits. And in healthcare, security, and distribution, and in some parts of manufacturing we are constructing durable partnerships with creative employers, managers and public administrators, improving productivity and service delivery through skills enhancement and grade advancement.

Change is the central imperative in today's environment. And any trade unionist who claims we can forestall it, is peddling an illusion and doing a grave disservice to workers. On the contrary, we must be at the forefront of change to influence its shape and direction - otherwise the future will be designed exclusively by those whose sole preoccupation is the accumulation of profit and personal wealth to the detriment of workers and the community in general.

This week, perched on the precipice of contrasting models of the future, we must decide on our strategy as the Sustaining Progress agreement ebbs away.

Despite the obvious deficiencies of the one size fits all model, in the private sector, however inappropriately named, "Social Partnership" has, on balance, been good for all - although the greater share of the gains have undoubtedly accrued to business and capital. But there is no point in our remaining in it if we cannot prevent displacement of workers covered by employment agreements and their replacement by vulnerable people on inferior terms.

In this regard I want to salute the courage of our members in Irish Ferries, who are fighting to retain their jobs and I want to assure them that we will continue to support them in every possible way. Indeed, scandalous and all as the treatment meted out to them has been, when you think about the way the company intends to treat the vulnerable people they intend to replace them with, it is even more scandalous.

There is a certain logic in the view that if we cannot prevent displacement within an agreement it is unlikely we will succeed outside. But a line has to be drawn somewhere.

And we have made it very clear that we will not acquiesce with a Race to the Bottom in employment standards, whatever the consequences. The key question is the attitude of the Government. Apart from the Taoiseach's condemnation of Irish Ferries, he is on record more than once over the past two years declaring he does not wish to see a Race to the Bottom. But is the Government prepared to act? Right now, I cannot assure you, with any degree of confidence, that talks on a new national agreement can result in tangible measures to prevent displacement, curb exploitation or protect employment standards.

The decision on which course to take has enormous implications for our members and workers generally. In any event, our policy will be decided here later this week and it will be decided by you, the delegates to this democratic assembly.

Important though it is, it is not the most important business we have before us this week. Ultimately "social partnership", as it is called, is only a strategy. One way or the other we must carry on with our work.

We must raise aloft a banner aspiring to the "Enhancement of All" against the neo-liberal jolly roger of "Survival of the Fittest". At the end of the day - neither the Government - and certainly not the employers - can be expected to defend workers' rights.

The only guarantee is through building strong trade unions as an effective voice for people at work, but also as an essential ingredient of a participatory democracy. Each day it is becoming more obvious that the battle to maintain standards of employment, and defend our existing members, is the battle to organise those who are not organised, nurture worker and community solidarity and encourage people to stand up for their interests.

We must shift resources to organising and campaigning, North and South. We must develop a new layer of workplace leaders for the future and strengthen alliances with other unions nationally and internationally. At the same time, we must build constructive partnerships with good employers, managers and public administrators - honouring our obligations and ensuring they honour theirs, and we must confront others with the uncompromising determination and vigour of a united movement.

Our conference is focused on the next decade. Over the next ten years, we have the potential on this island to build the best place to be a child, an adult or an older person. Or we can descend down the shallow spiral which the high-priests of greed will ultimately lead us.

Together here in Cork we must chart a course to advance the key concerns of our members and workers generally, through the enormity of the task which lies ahead.

If we fail to do so, the alternative is to leave the architecture of the future exclusively to those whose only agenda is the enhancement of the wealth and power of the few to the ultimate detriment of the many.

We must ensure that the future is for workers too and to do that we must organise together to make it so.





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