The battle against the privatisation of vital public services and utilities was central to debate at the two-day Biennial SIPTU Public Administration and Community Division Conference on 5th-6th November.
Addressing over 200 delegates on the first day of the conference, SIPTU Public Administration and Community Division Organiser, Gene Mealy, said: “The last time we met, it was against the background of the most severe economic crisis this country has ever faced. As we emerge from this crisis we have an opportunity to change people’s attitude to society and in particular to the delivery of good quality public services”.
Mealy highlighted the threat from privatisation and outsourcing, describing the latter as the “greatest threat to the delivery of good quality public services”. He said that these threats were particularly evident in the Community Sector, which did not enjoy the protections negotiated as part of the Haddington Road Agreement.
In conclusion he said: “Workers are starting to fight back, wanting to get on the front foot to reclaim the lost ground and advance their pay and conditions of employment. We must grasp this opportunity to meet the possibilities that now present themselves, to continue to be the movement to advance the rights and interests of working people”.
The current national debate around the establishment of Irish Water produced the liveliest discussion at the conference. An emergency motion was proposed by the SIPTU Local Authorities Sector calling on delegates to back the call for a referendum to enshrine the public ownership of water supply in the Constitution.
The motion was unanimously supported following a vigorous debate during which some delegates called for support for the Right2Water campaign and voiced opposition to water charges.
During her address, SIPTU Vice President, Patricia King, expanded on the scale of the privatisation agenda, which the union as a whole was confronting. In reference to its impact on the Community Sector she said the long established grant based system of State funding for the sector was under threat as the Department of Social Protection sought to “embrace new models of service delivery”. In plain language she said this meant pitting community organisations against each other in a competitive tendering process.
Speaking in support of a motion calling for collective bargaining for Community Sector workers, activist Barbara Kearns stated, “We must stop the race to the bottom in wages and conditions in the Community Sector”.
She added: “Establishing a mechanism to agree pay and conditions is a key defence for workers against the privatisation agenda”.
Other motions supported by delegates included a called for a pay restoration campaign, an ending of the public service recruitment moratorium and support for the SIPTU Secure Retirement Campaign.
SIPTU National Organiser, Joe Cunningham, reported that 3,000 workers had joined the SIPTU community sector in the past two years. He stated, “We are building a union where activists are making decisions, are leading campaigns and winning for workers”.
The SIPTU Youth Workers’ campaign was highlighted as an example of successfully organising workers through actions and political struggle.
Other speakers included ETUC Chief Economist, Ronald Janssen who led a debate on the economic crisis and how it had been used to undermine the concept of a Social Europe. Nevin Economic Research Institute Senior Research Officer, Micheál Collins, outlined the threat of outsourcing of public services questioning both their effectiveness and their effect on workers’ conditions.
The conference was also addressed by historian, Brian Hanley, on the impact of the First World War on the Irish working class. He said that the conflict should not be glorified but remembered with a sense of “rage and anger”.
