A number of  trade unions representing workers across all sectors of the economy participated in the 2014 Dublin Pride Parade, which took place on Saturday, 28th June.

Among the unions taking part were: SIPTU, the PSEU, the TUI, the ASTI, the INTO, the CPSU, the NUJ, the IFUT, IMPACT and the Unite trade union. The 2014 Dublin Pride Festival has also seen Liberty Hall’s rooftop lit up in pride colours nightly, as an expression of solidarity with the LGBT community in Ireland.

According to Congress Equality Officer, David Joyce, this year’s Pride Parade saw the highest ever level of participation by trade unions.

“We urge LGBT people to continue to engage with their trade unions to promote LGBT issues. While much progress has been made, prejudice and ignorance continue to scar the lives of far too many people. We know that LGBT workers are more likely to face workplace bullying and discrimination, and that hate crime remains a huge problem. This is graphically illustrated by the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) recently launched STAD report which documents hate crimes against transgender people in Ireland.”

David Joyce also pointed out that the Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has agreed to actively campaign in support of same sex marriage in the upcoming referendum and reiterated its call for an early Referendum Commission to be established to inform the upcoming debate. 

He said Congress will continue to demand the deletion of Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act – a provision which has a chilling effect on LGBT workers in religious run institutions.

SIPTU Divisional Organiser, Owen Reidy, has said the free transport scheme for senior citizens is under threat given the fact that the National Transportation Authority (NTA) has decided to privatise up to 10% of Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann services by 2016. In the case of Waterford 100% of the Bus Eireann service is to be privatised.

“SIPTU is very concerned given the lack of clear commitment of many of the private operators to the free travel arrangement. There has been speculation from some of their spokespersons in recent days that they would withdraw from the scheme and this has caused worry and uncertainty for senior citizens.

“These concerns will be further exacerbated if up to 10% of Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus routes are privatised. SIPTU members have campaigned and argued against this ideologically driven agenda. Part privatisation of these services will be a bad deal for the citizen and taxpayer, the travelling public and indeed the workers who provide such services within the CIE group of companies,” Owen Reidy said.

“Spokespersons for some private operators have made it very clear that they are at best lukewarm about honouring free travel arrangements for our senior citizens and this is yet another reason why the National Transport Authority and the Government need to pause on this plan to part privatise important routes and services,” he said.

SIPTU members in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin have given notice to management that they intend to undertake two days of strike action on Monday, 7th July, and Monday, 14th July, in a dispute related to changes to their conditions of employment.

SIPTU Organiser, Jason Palmer, said: “SIPTU members in the National Gallery voted to reject proposals regarding annual leave and a St. Stephen's Day payment which emerged from recent discussions with management on an earlier Labour Court recommendation.

“Following this vote the workers, in consultation with SIPTU and their workplace representatives, decided upon two further days of strike action at the gallery.”

Jason Palmer added: “The workers’ representatives are available to discuss alternatives to the recent proposals with management and believe they can offer a viable option that would satisfy the concerns of both sides regarding the implementation of the Labour Court recommendation.”

Currently, 39 SIPTU members are affected by the threatened removal of seven annual leave days and other changes to their conditions of employment. The scheduled work stoppages will commence at 8.00 a.m. and conclude at 5.30 p.m.

SIPTU members in the National Gallery previously undertook one day of strike action on Thursday, 5th June, in relation to the ongoing dispute.

Paris Bakery workers can now access insolvency fund.

On Monday, 30th June the High Court formally wound up Paris Bakery and Pastry Ltd and appointed a liquidator in response to a petition by the Revenue Commissioner. The Revenue Commissioner had intervened after a 19-day sit-in by Paris bakery workers. 

The Paris Bakery sit-in began on Friday 23rd May when employers Yannick Forel and Ruth Savill locked workers out, refusing to pay the workers or to wind up the company, and ended on Tuesday 10th June with the intervention of the Revenue Commissioner. The company owes over €150,000 in wages and entitlements to some 25 workers.
 
Speaking outside the high court, former Paris Bakery employee Eduard Claihnet said “Today a liquidator was appointed, which means we will now be able to access the insolvency fund, as well as the money awarded by the LRC to exploited workers, hopefully. We are delighted that the government has stepped in to wind up the company; they, too, are owed over €100,000 in taxes. The liquidator has already made contact with us; we’re relieved that the end is in sight at last.”
 
Mr Claihnet continued, “However, all the workers still find it hard to believe that our employers have gotten off scot-free. It is unbelievable that what they did is not a crime in Ireland. If I put my hand in the till and stole money I would be prosecuted and punished; but stealing wages does not seem to be taken seriously.”
 
Anissa Hosany, a chef with the bakery for over 3 years, said “We know that this happens to lots of other workers. We want our experience to help make the situation better for others. The government needs to act quickly to change the law so that business owners can’t simply walk away from their failed businesses without winding it up. Workers who have been abandoned by these businesses need to be allowed access to the Insolvency Fund. This happened to Vita Cortex workers, it happened to La Senza workers – the Government must change the law to make sure we’re the last workers ever to find ourselves in such dire circumstances”.
 
Anissa concluded, “Today we all feel vindicated, but we are also determined to prevent even one more worker from having to take action like this. Today we are calling on the government to change the laws to protect workers, not unscrupulous employers.”

According to SIPTU Sector Organiser, Willie Noone, the proposals include definitive clarity on exchequer subvention for the rail service for the next three years and a guarantee that the company will not seek further pay reductions or changes to conditions of employment during that time.
 
“The timeframe for pay cuts has been reduced to 25 months and €1.2 million that was previously earmarked to come from payroll cuts are now to be obtained from non-payroll areas. Commitments have also been given by the company to address outstanding and unfulfilled trade union pay agreements,” he said.
 
The SIPTU National Rail Committee decided on Monday (16th June) to put the proposals to a ballot of members. The ballot takes place from 19th June until 6th July and will be counted on 7th July.
 
The proposals emerged from intensive discussions and an earlier vote by SIPTU members in favour of industrial action following their rejection of a previous Labour Court recommendation.

SIPTU has called for advantage to be taken of the opportunities for expansion that are presented by the partial merger of Bord na Móna and Coillte following a meeting of the union’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee in Portlaoise, on Thursday (26th June).

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “The merger of the companies has the potential to create new business opportunities, particularly in renewable forms of energy and tourism. SIPTU will work with the new merged entity in exploring ways in which new job opportunities can be created. However, SIPTU will resist any attempts to reduce overall numbers employed in the new entity.”

SIPTU Organiser, John Regan, said: “SIPTU members in Bord na Móna believe the new joint venture arrangement offers the new company opportunities to expand. However, the management of Bord na Móna must switch tack. Rather than attempting to reduce workers’ earnings it should work with trade unions in upskilling workers and exploiting the opportunities, particularly for rural communities, which the new merged company presents.”

SIPTU has said that it will carefully study the final report of the Expert Panel on the resolution of industrial relations issues in the Irish Aviation Superannuation Scheme (IASS) which was issued on Monday, 16th June.

“The report of the Expert Panel is a complex document which requires detailed consideration. We will carefully study the report  and will consult with our members and their representatives in Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) on its content and recommendations,” said SIPTU Pensions Policy Advisor, Dermot O’Loughlin.

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• A €800 million net fiscal adjustment taking account of carry over under HRA and lower public spending arising from water charges.
• €400 million in additional taxes on capital plus employer PRSI and higher income taxes at the top end through a reduction in tax expenditures
• An emergency social fund to begin to address social housing and other critical areas (€400 million)
• An investment stimulus of €1 billion

You may download the Quarterly Economic Observer here: http://www.nerinstitute.net/research/QEO_Summer2014/

SIPTU members in the HSE National Ambulance Service including advanced paramedics, emergency medical technicians, controllers and patient transport service professionals are balloting for strike action over the refusal by the HSE to implement two binding Labour Court recommendations.

Addressing a meeting in Liberty Hall on Thursday (19th June) of union shop stewards and activists in the HSE, SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell said:

“We have been given no alternative but to ballot all SIPTU members employed in the HSE National Ambulance Service for strike action in support of our claim for the implementation of two binding Labour Court recommendations under the terms of the Haddington Road Agreement, both of which were issued over a year ago.

“It is also of concern that the Health Service Oversight Body formed to oversee the implementation of the Haddington Road Agreement and which is comprised of members of the Health Group of Unions, the HSE, the Department of Health and headed by the chairman of the Labour Relations Commission has had its unanimous call for implementation of the Labour Court recommendations totally stone walled without explanation”.
 
Paul Bell said that both Labour Court recommendations are extremely significant as they address the issues of redeployment as a consequence of the restructuring of services operated by the National Ambulance Service. Labour Court Recommendation 20456 addresses staff redeployment following the closure of Ambulance Command and Control Centres throughout the country in favour of a two centre Command and Control operation in Ballyshannon and Dublin.
 
“This Labour Court recommendation is ground breaking in that it confirms the right of our members to be redeployed to suitable posts not just within the ambulance service but also within the wider public service. He said that Labour Court Recommendation 20604 confirms the right to protection of our members under existing agreements and the right to re-deployment to suitable posts within the HSE and wider public service,” Paul Bell said.
 
He confirmed that the industrial action, if endorsed by SIPTU members, will be the first strike under the Public Service Agreement (Haddington Road). Balloting of SIPTU members commenced nationwide on Friday 27th June and will be completed within three weeks.

Construction workers from SIPTU and BATU trade unions held a protest on Thursday (26th June) outside the Department of Education and Skills, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, to highlight its failure to uphold agreed terms and conditions of employment for workers on projects under its remit.

The projects concerned fall under the Department of Education and Skills School Building Programme and form part of a €1.5 billion Capital Investment Programme.

SIPTU Construction Sector President, Eddie Gunnery, said: “The Department is awarding projects to contractors that are refusing to cooperate with construction trade union organisers seeking to ensure that workers are receiving the correct pay rates and conditions.

“The Department website and public works contracts state that the pay and conditions, including pension, sick pay and death in service cover for construction workers should be no less favourable than those arising from the former Construction Registered Agreements. Last year, in a meeting with trade unions on this issue the Minister for Eudcation and Skills, Ruairi Quinn, stated that he would rely on trade union organisers in the industry to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the Department. Well, we’re seeing and shouting, but unfortunately the Department appears to be both blind and deaf.”

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Pat McCabe, added: “By ignoring this situation the Department is undermining industry standard terms and conditions, therefore the expected boost to local economies is diminished. Skilled construction workers are now working for as little as €10 an hour on some of these projects.”

BATU member, John Doherty, employed on a new school project in Lucan, said: “I can give testimony to being employed on these projects but not being paid wages by the sub-contractor, or provided with payslips as per basic employment legislation.”

Both unions intend to commence a series of protests and other actions until such time as the Department of Education and Skills takes steps to ensure compliance for all such contracts.

SIPTU members employed across the manufacturing sector continue to receive pay increases with over 210 wage agreements finalised so far.

The increases are part of a strategy by the union’s Manufacturing Division which has secured an increase in pay across the sector of, on average, 2% per annum.

The increases in pay across the manufacturing sector are important in that they insulate the take home pay of union members as much as possible from the full effects of the economic crisis and austerity.

The union will continue to press for wage increases across both the private and public sectors over the coming months while campaigning for a budget that protects public services and those who depend on them.

It will also vigorously oppose tax cuts for the wealthy while arguing that the Labour Party should quit government rather than agree to the €2.5 billion ‘adjustment’ on which the European Commission and the Fiscal Advisory Council, among other bodies, have insisted.  

I love the French term for a wealth tax: ‘Impôt de solidarité sur la fortune’ It means, literally, ‘Tax of solidarity on fortunes’. In the English language we use the term ‘tax burden’ to refer to taxes. They are conceived as a burden – to be minimised and avoided as much as possible.  According to this political and ethical philosophy the individual stands outside and alongside the collective.  The rights of the individual and the collective are seen as more or less mutually exclusive. The collective, very frequently, is seen as a means towards the vindication of particular individual rights. ‘Particular’ because these rights relate to unfettered freedom to own and dispose of property.

As stated in a previous Monday blog (‘PIketty on inequality’) Piketty has shaken the cage of the normally monological, consensus-laden landscape of political economy discourse such as it is in Ireland.  In a way, people felt safe to discuss Piketty, his evidence and his ideas (even if it is doubtful many actually read his book entirely) because it didn’t necessitate radical change in social or tax policy in the here and now. It was pitched very much at the global level or at the level of ideas and long-term goals. ‘Equality is good. Let’s have more of it. Everyone is a sort of social democrat now’ seems to be the underlying sentiment among at least some economists and commentators. Or, perhaps, a more realistic perspective borrowed and adapted, inappropriately from St Augustine, ‘Make us more egalitarian but not yet’. We just have to pass through another decade of two of mild prolonged austerity during which we get our public finances in order, pay down most of our debt and ‘reform’ (a wonderful term to mean many different things to different people but in this context ‘reform’ = ‘freer’) product, service and labour markets. Put bluntly, ‘Piketty is accepted as largely right but the world is the way it is and we have to muddle along as best as possible until better times return – hopefully times more hospitable to the implementation of the Great Moderation in Inequality (GMI) that largely ruled from about 1920 to 1980 in the evidence reviewed by Piketty for the major capitalist nations.

Recent decades have been characterised, broadly, by the following trends:

• A rising share of national income going to capital and not labour;
• A rising inequality in income to labour (before taxes) with a developing culture of super salaries and bonuses in both public and private sectors;
• A transfer of wealth from the public to the private domain running alongside higher returns to some forms of capital (the socialisation of banking debts, perversely, is part of a privitisation of public assets as publicly acquired private losses are turned into income streams for private rentiers lending to governments).
• A predilection for more risky financial assets and property over productive assets correlated with periods of boom and bubble to be followed by bust.

The sale of productive state assets and social services are an example. Piketty depicts a hypothetical world which begins to look less hypothetical (page 542):

‘According to the national accounts of the various European countries, the proceeds from selling all public buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, police stations, infrastructure, and so on would be roughly sufficient to pay off all outstanding public debt. Instead of holding public debt via their financial investments, the wealthiest European households would become the direct owners of schools, hospitals, police stations, and so on. Everyone else would then have to pay rent to use these assets and continue to produce the associated public services. This solution, which some very serious people actually advocate, should to my mind be dismissed out of hand.”

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