The Irish Congress of Trade Unions announced on Wednesday (21st January), that SIPTU Vice President, Patricia King, is to succeed outgoing General Secretary David Begg, when he steps down in March.

Patricia will be the first woman General Secretary in the 121-year history of Congress.

SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, said: “SIPTU would like to offer our warmest congratulations to Patricia King on her appointment. She is one of the most experienced and skilled trade union representatives in the country.

“We wish her every success as she assumes one of the most important and difficult roles in the trade union movement and we look forward to continuing to work with her in the interests of union members and working people generally.”

Left political leaders also offered their congratulations to King. Leader of the Labour Party and Tánaiste, Joan Burton, said: “The appointment of a woman to the most senior trade union post in the country is a landmark and progressive development. It is a greatly positive step for those of us who wish to see more women taking up positions of leadership in Ireland.”

Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, welcomed the appointment adding that King was assuming her new role “at a difficult time for workers and a particularly challenging time for the trade union movement in Ireland.”

King has represented workers in all areas of the economy, in both the public and private sectors. Patricia was a key negotiator in both the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements and played a leading role in the Irish Ferries dispute.

Congress names Patricia King as General Secretary designate

SIPTU congratulates Patricia King on appointment as Congress General Secretary

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Amnesty International will hold a joint protest outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy on Fitzwilliam Square East, in Dublin this evening (Thursday, 22nd January) at 6.00 p.m. to highlight the inhumane and degrading treatment of blogger Raif Badawi.

The blogger was sentenced to 1,000 lashes over 20 weeks and 10 years in prison for setting up the website 'Saudi Arabian Liberals'.

Badawi received his first flogging of 50 lashes on Friday, 9th January. The second flogging, due to take place last Friday, was postponed after a medical examiner concluded that his wounds had not healed properly and that he would not be able to withstand another round of lashes at that time.

Irish NUJ Secretary, Séamus Dooley, said the event was an opportunity to  express solidarity with Raif and other journalists, bloggers and those who are denied their freedom of speech,

He added: “The treatment of Raif Badwai is an outrage, an affront to human decency but it has not occurred in isolation.

The number of children living in consistent poverty – meaning they are living both at risk of poverty and experiencing deprivation – doubled from 6% to just under 12% between 2008 and 2013, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The figures revealed in the CSO 2013 Survey on Income and Living Conditions and published on Wednesday (21st January) mean that 135,000 children – or one in eight – are experiencing material deprivation on a daily basis in Ireland.

Among the report’s other findings are:

- 1.4 million people, or almost 31% of the population, suffered from deprivation and were not able to afford basic items.

- A quarter of the population was not able afford to heat their home adequately.

- Deprivation rates were most acute among lone parents, the unemployed and those not at work due to illness or disability.

READ FULL REPORT HERE

SIPTU has called on the Government to immediately end the effective veto over the progressing of Joint Labour Committees (JLCs) which employers groups are using to consign tens of thousands of workers to poverty.

SIPTU Services Division Organiser, John King, said: “For nearly 12 months workers have had to endure the Restaurants Association of Ireland and Irish Hotels Federation subverting Government policy and refusing to engage in the JLC process. This process merely seeks to set fair wages and conditions for mostly low paid workers in order to ensure that their work pays enough for them to support themselves and their families.

He added: “What is particularly galling about these employers refusing to accept Government policy is that they have also received massive state support in recent years. This has included the targeted reduction of VAT rates, investment in tourism projects such as the Gathering and the Wild Atlantic Way, as well as the continued supplementing of their employees incomes by the State because they refuse to pay them sufficient wages.”

SIPTU calls on Government to end employers’ veto of JLCs

The Central Bank should not proceed with plans requiring homebuyers to have a 20% deposit in place before being approved for a home loan, according to SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor.

The Central Bank is expected to decide next week whether or not to proceed with the controversial plans to change the loan-to-value (LTV) ratios which banks apply for home loans and to require lenders to impose an income threshold of 3.5 times earnings when considering mortgage applications.

Jack O’Connor said: “If implemented as currently envisaged, these plans would put home ownership beyond the reach of thousands of individuals and couples. They would in fact make it the exclusive preserve of the better-off, those able to access inherited wealth and of serial investors. Many of our members have expressed concern about the impact of this proposal on them, or their children, and their chances of getting on to the property ladder.”

SIPTU calls on Central Bank to abandon plans for 20% mortgage deposit

Despite Government Ministers signaling support for renewed talks between the social partners, no discussions have taken place according to incoming Congress General Secretary Designate, Patricia King.

At a press conference to announce her appointment as Congress General Secretary on Wednesday (21st January), King said: “I have not been party to any discussion with anybody on the Government side and as yet I have not come across anyone that has.”

She added that she would not be commenting on the prospects for new social partnership talks “until we see if there is anything on offer and if there is, what it is, what mechanism and what are they talking about.”

On Monday (19th January), Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, said: “Rather than having a re-establishment of social partnership, which at the end was a failure, I would like to see something where people had a way of inputting between elections as a general principle and to what their priorities would be through those civil society organisations that represent people.”

Home Helps want to play their part in solving the hospital overcrowding crisis by being allowed work more hours caring for vulnerable clients.

Protesting outside the Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, on Thursday (15th January), Frances Whelan, a Home Help and SIPTU activist, said: "People are stuck on trolleys and we know we can help. There are many people in hospital beds who with the correct support can return home and be cared for by the Home Help service.

"However, cutbacks in our service mean that for increasing numbers this is not a viable option. We want to get the message to the public that Home Helps are here in the local community and we are ready, willing and able to work".

On 15th January, Home Help ‘Right to Work’ protests took place outside Connolly Hospital, St. James's Hospital, Dublin 8, and the Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Westmeath.

SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell, also highlighted the issue at a protest outside Leinster House on Wednesday, 14th January.

“The crisis in our hospitals is integrally linked to the running down of health services within our communities. Nearly three million hours have been cut from Home Help services since 2008, with cutbacks only coming to a halt after a concerted campaign by our union,” he said.

SIPTU calls for increase in Home Help services at Dáil hospital crisis protest

SIPTU Home Helps hold 'Right to Work' protests

SIPTU demands HIQA immediately inspect overcrowded hospitals

SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell, has called on the HSE to immediately release a capacity review of the National Ambulance Service that was commissioned last year following concerns raised by workers that the service is inadequately resourced.

He said: “The capacity review into the National Ambulance Service must be released immediately and discussed at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health as a matter of priority.

“The time has come for the Government to stop moving from one health crisis to another. It needs to provide leadership and the public with confidence that the National Ambulance Service is safe, fully resourced and fit for purpose.”

SIPTU calls for immediate release of HSE ambulance capacity review

http://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2015/fullstory_18737_en.html

Members of the Bord na Móna Group of Unions have called on the highly profitable company to implement a proposed pay rise of 3.5% and end its attacks on their terms and conditions of employment.

The call for the implementation of the long outstanding pay rise emerged from general meetings of workers in Tullamore, county Offaly, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of January.

Bord na Móna Group of Unions Secretary and SIPTU Organiser, John Regan, said: “The general meetings were attended by over 80% of members of the Group of Unions. Workers at these meetings mandated their union representatives to insist the company delivers on a 3.5% pay increase that has been outstanding for five years, and end its attempts to undermine their terms of employment."

He added: “Over the 75 years of this semi-state company's existence many organisational changes have been successfully introduced by management engaging fully with workers and their representatives. That management has now adopted a draconian approach to negotiations with workers is extremely unhelpful."

READ FULL STORY HERE

An Extraordinary General Meeting of the SIPTU academic section at NUI Galway unanimously backed a motion on 8th January, calling for an external equality audit, of all aspects of the university, by an independent expert or experts.

The resolution states that the university must take action to eliminate all facets of structural discrimination within the institution.  It requires that SIPTU be involved in agreeing the external expert(s) in order to guarantee their independence.

The meeting agreed that academics were not alone in facing discrimination. The SIPTU Committee stated: “If this is happening to women academics at NUIG what are women on low pay or no pay facing, for example, administrative staff and cleaners? Actively and concretely addressing this issue is of concern to all staff regardless of gender or employment status.”

The SIPTU committee motion follows a recent Equality Tribunal ruling in favour of NUIG scientist Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, and which directed that she be awarded €70,000. NUIG was also ordered to promote Dr. Sheehy Skeffington, recently retired, to senior lecturer from July 2009 and to pay her the full salary difference.

However, NUIG is appealing an €81,000 award which the Equality Tribunal directed that it pay lecturer Mary Dempsey last summer, after it found that she was discriminated against by the university on the grounds of gender, family status and disability.

READ FULL STORY HERE

The Government must stop cuts to the funding of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and oppose EU deregulation plans for safety regulation in order to halt a rise in work related deaths, according to SIPTU. 

Figures released by the HSA on Tuesday, 6th January show that 55 people were killed in work related accidents last year, compared to 47 in 2013.

SIPTU Health and Safety Advisor, Sylvester Cronin, said: “SIPTU has on numerous occasions warned that reductions on preventative services would inevitably lead to increases in work-related accidents, illnesses and deaths. Sadly it would seem our fears have materalised.

“The Government must also stand up to the EU Commission’s attempts to deregulate occupational safety and health legislation or we will see more alarming increases in work related accidents, illnesses and deaths.”

SIPTU calls for Government action to halt rise in workplace deaths

Unions have welcomed a call from the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, on the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) to enter into talks aimed at resolving a dispute arising from the Board’s attempt to increase its fee by 50%.

Unions have instructed their members to pay the existing fee of €100 in 2015 rather than the €150 demanded by NMBI. In a letter to the NMBI the Minister requests that talks are commenced in order to ensure that no nurse or midwife is removed from the register due to the dispute.

SIPTU Nursing Sector Organiser, Kevin Figgis, said: “The Minister’s intervention comes at a time when, despite repeated intimidatory statements by the Board, the campaign of opposition remains strong with tens of thousands of nurses and midwives supporting the campaign”.

More than 120 organisations joined the fifth annual ‘We are Fed Up!’ demonstration, which this year focused on the increased importation of American farming practices – such as genetic modification, frequent antibiotic injections for animals, and chemical meat treatments – which could follow the implementation of the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

"The EU-USA trade agreement TTIP only serves global concerns, and will take away the means of existence from many farms here and across the world," rally organiser Jochen Fritz told the media.

Police said that 25,000 people joined the peaceful demonstration – with organisers claiming twice that number – though the most impressive spectacle included a procession of 80 tractors manned by angry farmers. The demonstration was timed to coincide with International Green Week, a large agriculture fair that has just begun in Berlin.

“Eating is political. Every single decision I make about what to buy is determined by how the animals are kept, or what grows in our fields. And I can make sure that I support the farmers and not the big agricultural industry corporations,” said Fritz.

READ MORE: Pasty peril! TTIP threatens Cornwall’s £300m meat pastry trade

The Government has been urged to take action to end upward only rent reviews which are negatively impacting on workers' wages and employment in the hospitality and catering sector.

SIPTU Services Division Organiser, John King, said: “The hospitality and catering sector is experiencing unprecedented growth. This growth is being partly fueled by tourist numbers and spending, with 2014 seeing these return to levels only experienced prior to the recession.

“However, ever increasing rents are adversely impacting on many workplaces in the services sector. Rather than increased productivity resulting in wage and job growth, growing revenues are being siphoned off by property owners at the expense of the wider economy.”

In January, Bewley's announced job losses at its café in Grafton Street, Dublin. Bewley’s had fought an unsuccessful legal battle with its landlord, Ickendeal Ltd, which is controlled by property developer Johnny Ronan, to have its €1.5 million annual rent reduced to €728,000, as suggested by a third-party arbitrator in January 2012.

The Government had committed to ending upward only rent reviews but later stated that advice from the Attorney General specified that such a move would be unconstitutional.

READ FULL STORY HERE

By Seán Carabini

Recently, the government announced that it would conduct a review of the Artists Tax Exemption. Nothing, apparently, is off the table – including its abolition. In the media, it is often portrayed as a tax break for the wealthy or for those who have written memoirs about their times in public life. But to abolish the Artists Tax Exemption would be a mistake.

Most countries have schemes to assist cultural endeavours. Such schemes are there to encourage people to work in areas of cultural activity and to keep those activities alive. When it comes to artistic endeavour, Ireland is unique. Internationally, Ireland is known for its writers. Despite our small geographic size and population, we have produced four Nobel Literature Prize winners in addition to literary titans such as Joyce, Trevor, McGahern, Behan … the list goes on. Writing is what we do. It, therefore, stands to reason that we would put supports into the development of the writing culture on this island.

Ireland does not have many supports for artistic endeavours. But it does have the Artist’s Tax Exemption. The exemption allows for artists (accepted by the Revenue Commissioners as qualifying) to earn the first €40,000 from an artistic work with no tax liability in a given year.

However, unlike many occupations, writers and artists often spend years on a project and only earn in the final year. A writer only gets paid for the final draft – no matter how many years were spent writing or creating it.

Ireland, however, has allowed a rather unusual situation to develop. The exemption, introduced to foster artistic endeavour, is on occasion awarded to politicians and other public figures for their memoirs. The public are right to be critical of such uses of the exemption. Its purpose should be to foster and encourage artistic endeavour – not to offer a quick wallet injection to those who are not, by any definition, artists. But to abolish the tax exemption because of such uses would be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The Irish Copyright Licencing Agency undertook a study of artist’s incomes in 2007. At a time that Ireland was supposedly at the peak of a ‘boom’, it found that 93% of full-time artists earned less than the average wage. Although the exemption is often associated with the very few that have become wealthy from artistic endeavour, the truth is that the vast majority in the field are struggling.

The tax exemption and other artistic supports say something about us as a nation. Are we willing to inject billions into saving banks on one hand but not spend a few million fostering art on the other(the 2013 cost of the Artist’s Tax Exemption was only €6m)? Artists write the stories that help us to come to terms with difficult chapters in our past. They entertain us. They provoke us and make us imagine different futures. The exemption may require reform – but to abolish it would send a very negative signal about the supports we are willing to give to the sector that, more than any other, helps us to define who we are and what we stand for as a country.

(Seán Carabini is the Chairperson of the Irish Writers’ Union – an affiliate of SIPTU).

South Dublin County Council (SDCC) will maintain Community Employment and Job Initiative Scheme payments on a weekly basis.

SIPTU Organiser, Karen Smollen, said: “SDCC advised supervisors and participants in these schemes that it would be moving from weekly to fortnightly payments. Following representations by SIPTU Community Sector organisers it has been agreed that those involved in the Community Employment and Job Initiative Schemes will continue to be paid weekly.

“This will be done by South Dublin County Partnership taking over responsibility for paying participants involved in both schemes with effect from Tuesday, 29th January.”

SIPTU welcomes SDCC decision to maintain weekly payments to job scheme participants

Irish NUJ Secretary, Séamus Dooley, was in Paris on 11th January to commemorate the workers murdered in the Charlie Hebdo attack four days earlier.

As we returned to Place de la République before the magnificent rally the young taxi driver, looking at our array of curious flags and banners smiled and asked "Are you here for Charlie?".

We replied in the affirmative and he patiently navigated his way through traffic diversions as Michelle Stanistreet and myself explained that we had just laid an NUJ flag at the office of Charlie Hebdo.

On arrival at our hotel the young driver declined to accept the fare:”You came here for the manifestation. Thank you".

This was the spirit of Paris, the spirit of liberty which brought more than 4 million people on to the streets of cities across the country echoing across the republic:  Je Suis Charlie.

It was a spirit adequately conveyed by coverage in the print and broadcast media, which focused on the admittedly newsworthy attendance of a dazzling array of world leaders, including acknowledged oppressors of press freedom and human rights offenders.

The litany of shame included the prime minister of Turkey, the King of Jordan, the Tunisian prime minister, representatives from Hungary, Russia and Egypt, the Algerian ambassador, the prime minister of Israel, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to France – a country whose parlous record on press freedom was so amply demonstrated a week earlier by the flogging of a blogger imprisoned for "insulting Islam".

Those gathered along Boulevard Voltaire and all along the winding route to Nation witnessed a march led by the dignified families of those brutally gunned down just a few days earlier, followed by representatives of the French and global media unions.  The international celebrities and despots were a distraction from the people’s march.

Silence was the only response as the families, men, women and children thrown into the spotlight of history, embraced and shared tears of loss.

NUJ president Andy Smith, Michelle Stanistreet, as General Secretary, and myself deeply appreciated the invitation to walk with the French media unions behind the families at this trade union organised rally.  France is probably the only country in Europe where international dignitaries would be required to walk behind the trade unions.

 As the march began Ricardo Gutiérrez, Deputy General Secretary of the IFJ declared in a spontaneous gesture declared "carte press" and we raised our cards to the cry of "Charlie" from men, women and children gathered on balconies along the route.

Last year 118 journalists were killed across the globe.

 Over the past ten years 1,000 media workers have been killed, murders all too often treated with impunity by governments who facilitate and sustain a political environment where journalists and journalism are threatened and targeted without justice.

In marking the Paris murders we must never forget that freedom of expression is threatened not just from one source but from many, including some of those who shed crocodile tears in Paris.

The appointment of the union’s Vice-President, Patricia King, as general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is both timely and welcome. It comes at a moment of great challenge for the Irish trade union movement when her negotiating skills and experience will be hugely important in any future discussions with the Government and private employers.

She has been central to the negotiation, during years of deep crisis, of the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements which brought pain to tens of thousands of workers in the public service but protected jobs and conditions of employment.

In her 25 years as shop floor activist and trade union organiser she has fought many intense battles with employers and was key to the successful resolution of the dispute at Irish Ferries in 2005 when the employer sought to drive a coach and four through long established industrial relations procedures and to lead a race to the bottom in pay and conditions of employment.

On her appointment, she said that her emphasis will be on improving the lives and incomes of working people and their families and particularly of young people, whom she rightly said have endured a particularly rough deal over these past years of austerity.

We wish her every success as she assumes one of the most important and difficult roles in the trade union movement and we look forward to continuing to work with her in the interests of union members and working people generally.

Annual Mass for Deceased SIPTU Members

Sunday, 15th February at 11.00am

Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1

in honour of Matt Talbot’s 90th Anniversary

Followed by light refreshments in the Lourdes Day Centre

As your readers are aware, Bob was an annual visitor to the Jim Connell trade union festival held every May Bank holiday in Kells and Crosakiel, and one of the highlights when he visited was leading his beloved R.M.T. band in the parade around the village and later addressing the crowd with his gusto that only Bob could do. 

Our society are pleased to report that after meeting his family and the RMT they have given us permission to commemorate Bob’s life at this year’s festival by unveiling a suitable tribute to him.  Bob’s family has agreed to be in attendance. 

This year’s festival takes place from the 1st May to the 4th May and everyone is invited.  The final programme will be ready by mid April, and all interested will be notified. 

Yours faithfully, 

Tommy Grimes
P.R.O. Jim Connell Society