Unions face backlash as pay cuts now inevitable

* Damning figures force leaders' u-turn * Focus switches to saving public service jobs

Martin Frawley and Shane Coleman

Brendan Ogle: penal tax rates

Public sector union leaders have privately conceded that pay cuts are inevitable in the forthcoming budget.

Despite the success of Friday's protest marches across the country, details of the public finances presented to the unions in talks last week have convinced many of their negotiators that it will be next to impossible to avoid pay cuts next month.

The real aim now is to protect pay, jobs and public services beyond 2010, one union source admitted last week.

Union leaders involved in the negotiations are bracing themselves for a backlash from their members and from other unions as a result and are desperately trying to convince Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Taoiseach Brian Cowen to 'sugar the pill' in next month's budget in order to avoid a winter of discontent.

Criticism of their approach to the negotiations has already come from Brendan Ogle, regional organiser of the Unite trade union in the ESB, who has called for a national strike to secure a reformed tax system hitting high earners and to "show that the days of cosy consensus" with government are over. Writing in today's Sunday Tribune Ogle launches a scathing attack on the government, bankers and those union leaders on "six figure salaries" who he says "are not known to the bulk of their members".

The Dundalk-born former train driver, who led a 10-week rail strike in the summer of 2000, said a "broader and more just tax base" must be a core demand of a national strike.

"This should include penal tax rates for those earning €200,000 and the closure of tax loopholes for the super rich. If they leave, good riddance. Rats often leave a sinking ship."

Such a strike would allow unions to "set the agenda as to how we want our society to move out of this mess and to do so in a way that is more economically sustainable without sacrificing important social values," he said.

Accusing the government of creating a "vacuous public versus private debate" with the aim of turning worker on worker, Ogle said it was "time for those who fund this country through their taxes to wrestle control back for now and forever".

Although some union leaders have resigned themselves to pay cuts in December's budget, Wednesday's protest by nurses, guards and other frontline public service workers, as well as the national day of protest on 24 November, will go ahead. These will allow union members to vent their anger at the government, one source said.

Talks between the unions and the government resume this week but little progress is expected.

Although Taoiseach Brian Cowen has talked about reducing public service numbers in lieu of a pay cut, only 5,000 public servants are due to retire next year.

Even if none of these are replaced, this would still only cut around €270m from the payroll - nowhere near the €1.3bn cuts the government says is required.

November 8, 2009

Comments

#1 Sean O'Toole commented, on November 8, 2009 at 8:58 p.m.:

While pay cuts seem an inevitability for public sector workers following Decembers budget, perhaps it is time for trade union members to demand a change of approach from their union leaders. Union initiatives to date have attempted to resist pay cuts at all costs including mass disruption of public services via industrial action. As the drip feeding of information regarding the continuing demise of our economy persists unabated, it is clear that by encouraging Union membership to engage in a protracted episode of industrial hostilities in an attempt to prevent pay cuts would only amount to a national display of public sector niavity and trade union impotence Surely it would be more practical for trade unions to use demands for a general election as the emphasis of protracted industrial endeavours, at least it would be more palatable taking pay cuts from a government innocent of the murder of Ireland as we have come to know her.

#2 Greg commented, on November 8, 2009 at 10:03 p.m.:

€270 million

5000 workers

That's €54,000 per worker

Nice money if you can get it

#3 Brian Murphy commented, on November 8, 2009 at 10:09 p.m.:

Im sick to death listening to these union leaders banging on - look at the amount of power they have had on the boards of FAS, Aer Lingus, Central Bank and did nothing with it - look at the waste in the public service that their members have been responsible for. They had their noses stuck in the trough for the last few years and are now refusing to take responsibility for their part in ruining this country.

#4 james Linnane commented, on November 8, 2009 at 10:15 p.m.:

If the government gives employees two weeks unpaid leave - this will do it
mark my word
the 24/7 employees then can either take that or cuts in their premium payments

#5 jack meskill commented, on November 9, 2009 at 9:04 a.m.:

Brendan Ogle is obviously cut from a different cloth than Peter Mc Cloone and his immediate predecessors, Phil Flynn and Harry O Sullivan who were all given high paid fat-cat jobs by the State after their retirement from their union day jobs, presumably as a reward for being such nice boys in their union horse-trading with successive governments.
It is time the tax and union dues payers took a long hard look at the facts. It is time for real protest and pain, for everyone, not just for the little people who pay for the bail-outs for politicians and their banker and developer business partners.

#6 Dave commented, on November 9, 2009 at 10:48 a.m.:

Brendan Ogle proposes "penal tax rates for those earning €200,000."

I wonder if he knows what "penal" means. Otherwise, he might have a hard time arguing that everybody earning €200,000 or more is doing so by illegal means.

#7 v.gerrard commented, on November 9, 2009 at 3:40 p.m.:

Oh, the crooked union's will sort out something with the crooked government & then the crooked government will just tidy both their words up a little bit & then they'll present their budget & then both crooked union's & crooked government will think they done a fine job. But the ordinary Joe Soap will soon know he's none the richer in fact he's a lot poorer he can't afford even the little things he could afford before the crooked union's & the crooked government sorted out something for the mostly honest little men & women they are supposed to be representing. (Especially the poor & elderly) For whom Christmas will be anything than merry, more like very scrooges seeming & cold & miserable.

Yea, the crooked union will sort out something with the crooked government. Then Nama will come & they'll do it all over again in the New Year in the country of fear & loathing, things will be very uncomfortable...& then the crooked union's will try to sort out something with the crooked government even if it is a new government. But it will be too late; things will have moved rapidly on to the country meeting its nasty fate...the fatal date. On the 1st of April 2010 it will happen, it will be the end it will be (RIP) Ireland INC!

And all I will have left will be the last frozen steam of my breath to somehow scream out the word "Fools" to them both...the crooked unions & the crooked government.

#8 Pete commented, on November 9, 2009 at 4:27 p.m.:

"broader and more just tax base" - does the man not realise that we are already in a situtation where the top 4% in earning capacity already pay approx 50% of all income tax; how much more do you want them to pay before they up shop and leave; and leave 50 x joe soaps on the street to plug the equivalent gap in tax revenue.
Taxing the general public is a balancing act; not some draconian measure you can employ without paying the consequnces of narrow minded thinking.
The fact remains that the number of people in Ireland who earn in excess of 200k is a very small pool which is ever dwindling; even if you taxed them at 75% rate it would come no where near making up the difference required.

#9 Jack Meskill commented, on November 9, 2009 at 10:18 p.m.:

By the way, on top of their 150K salaries, with extra pension benefits, most of these top union officials rake in over fifty thousand a year, tax free, in travel and subsistence payments that are tax free and many times more than the actual cost of their travel and meals etc.
Surprise, surprise, they are "privately" reported as agreeing to Government suggestions re public pay cuts and pay levies and job cuts. Maybe they were elected to defend workers rights and futures, not trade them for golden sinecures after retirement? How many of them are also bank shareholders?
Might they now, ( instead of agreeing to taxpayers paying off the debts of bank shareholders and super-rich developers,) like to suggest that that any public servant or pensioner, with a child or two to support, earning less than 30K, (at the prices their developer friends charge for rents these days,) should be absolved from all taxes and levies??
Lets start sharing the pain and lets start at the bottom this time.
Lets all get on the bandwagon, not just the golden circles and their seemingly suspisciously compliant union leaders ...........

#10 RSU commented, on November 10, 2009 at 11:43 p.m.:

"If the government gives employees two weeks unpaid leave - this will do it
mark my word
the 24/7 employees then can either take that or cuts in their premium payments"

And you can spend those two weeks with no police, fire service, medical care, prison staff, etc. No passports, no medical cards, no social welfare payments.

And thats only if some of the public sector go!

What everyone is missing is the the vital point. Gardai, nurses, firemen, etc are all still vital and run ragged. The public sector in the offices runs the country from the dole to passports. If you lost your job in the private sector its because there was no demand anymore for your servic. Can you say the same for Gardai / firemen?

#11 sarah commented, on November 11, 2009 at 10:25 a.m.:

Re Gregs comment on '€54k per person - nice if you can get it' don't you realise that the employee doesn't get €54k. That figure is what it costs to retain an employee. For example in the private sector an employee earning around €28k actually costs the company almost €45k.....

To Public sector workers who are continuously being told they don't contribute anything to the economy I would like to suggest that instead of going on strike why don't you hit back directly at comments like this - for instance they say you don't contribute to the economy - right - so for 3 days do just that - don't contribute - don't spend any money, don't buy any petrol, defer all your purchases for 3 days. This would have a much more significant impact that feeding into the you and them hysteria thats been whipped up by going on Strike.

#12 mark daly commented, on November 15, 2009 at 10:55 a.m.:

there is no democracy in these unions whatsoever and there is no transparency either. there is also a huge chasm between what the people at the top earn, thats the union leaders and the union workers. at the bottom. I noticed there was no mention in the media about the likes of connor,mcloone, john white of asti about how much they get. but they believe they are above any questions from the media. one more hyopcrite is vincent brown. he too is silent about how much he gets. and bangs on about the unfair sociery. brown is a columnist, broadcaster, publisher, former junior barrister. vincent doesnt come cheap. does he?

#13 john pardway commented, on November 15, 2009 at 1:49 p.m.:

In the Irish times a week ago, a letter writer said "Good Riddance" to graduates who were emigrating because they couldn't find jobs in Ireland. Now this guy is saying "Good Riddance" to the wealthy leaving Ireland.

Who will be left in the country? Just the old and the poor?

Comments

Comments closed

Related Articles

Share this article

Search

RSS Feeds

Related Articles

Contradictions of trade unions are untenable

A better fairer way... but does it work?

Friday's protest wasn't just about public-sector pay cuts... no really

Why we need a national strike. And why it won't happen