Dear members,
Over the next couple of weeks, from 20th July to 28th August, there will be townhall meetings where we will hold consultations and ballots on industrial and/or strike action.
This follows the government’s failure to provide a credible basis for talks on a successor to the Public Service Agreement 2024- 2026, which ended on 30th June.
We want to hear our members’ views; we want you to be involved in the conversation. We want you to help shape our strategy moving forward.
This campaign is about this Union representing our members in the public service and fighting for pay justice for workers facing the ongoing pressures of rising rents, mortgage costs, fuel prices, food costs, and everyday living expenses.
It is also essential that we protect quality public-sector jobs and resist the threat of outsourcing, which would lead to a race to the bottom in pay, conditions, and service standards.
The reality is that working people cannot shoulder that burden on their own.
The government has a responsibility. The government has shown that it can act too. We saw it in last year’s budget.
We saw it a number of weeks ago in relation to the fuel protests. We have seen it in the reduction of VAT in the hospitality sector. The government has shown it can dip into its pockets when it has to and produce funding.
It is time for the government to do it for the working people.
The government did nothing for working people in its last budget. It’s unacceptable that workers shoulder the burden of the current economic crisis.
SIPTU will walk alongside those workers; we will consult, we will ballot, and we will take the necessary action to protect our members in the public service.
We will fight against pay injustice.
We will fight for decent jobs.
We will fight outsourcing and protect the essential frontline service our members provide in communities across the country.
In solidarity,
Kevin Figgis
Health Divisional Organiser