The Government faces a mobilised army of citizens demanding that their concerns about the cost-of-living crisis and fair pay be heard, the SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, Adrian Kane, told the Union’s Public Administration and Community Division Biennial Delegate Conference in Galway today.
Addressing delegates, Adrian Kane said: “Most of you in this hall stood on picket lines last week all across this country. From Bantry to Ballinteer, from Cork to Galway, from Athy to Athenry, from every village, town, parish and city came an army of organised labour, the likes of which we hadn’t seen in quite some time.
“It may not have been Connolly’s Citizen Army, but it was an Army of Citizens, exercising their democratic right to withhold their labour and demand that an unresponsive Government listen to them.”
He added: “This dispute articulated the anger that ordinary people have about the cost of living that they just can’t seem to get ahead of. Fuel, petrol, diesel, electricity, energy, food and rent are all at extortionate levels, and the aspiration of ever owning a place to call home is out of reach for many.”
He continued: “It was also an outpouring of the frustrations of the youth of Ireland. Sadly, this is no country for young men or women, locked out of the housing market and often unable to secure good, steady employment, with emigration still the most promising choice for many.”
Turning to the ongoing public sector pay talks, Kane, SIPTU’s lead negotiator, said: “These talks will not resolve all our woes; no one set of pay talks has the capacity to do that. Obviously, what pay terms are ultimately concluded will be viewed very closely by the private sector. The Government’s natural tendency will be to try and suppress wages during a high inflationary period.
“We want to ensure that we leave nothing on the table and to ensure we secure pay increases that negate inflationary pressures, but we also need investment in public services because if we don’t, the work will be outsourced by default. We need protections against outsourcing, but we also need to police them and fight to have the work retained and build a better model for public procurement.”
Kane concluded: “I hope that the re-awakening of organised labour that you led a week ago will be seen as a decisive day in the path to building a fairer, more just and better Ireland.”