What does ICTU actually stand for? It's something that began to puzzle me over the past few months.

Traditionally unions were in creative opposition to employers. The interplay of their respective legal rights and industrial muscle created in large part the modern working system.

But in the late 1980s this mode of creative opposition broke down in Ireland. Over time the social partnership model, initially set up to moderate wage inflation and industrial strife, expanded its remit to become a shadow government. In line with the trend for relativities, the union leaders were not shy in awarding themselves generous pay and remuneration as their influence was allowed by a succession of weak governments to wax and wax.

Relativities are dangerous things: while people doing the same job should, all things being equal, get the same pay, the 1970s were bedevilled by strikes as unions and management dug in over pay and condition relativities. Over time the union leaders have benchmarked their salaries, more or less, to those of TDs. Both now serve us ill, but both seem intent on keeping their head down to avoid flak.

The ICTU must be the only body in the country in denial over the extent and seriousness of the economic problems facing the state. It has shown, in the words of Brian Cowen, that it does not have "the bottle for the battle".

David Begg and his union leader colleagues know well the state of the public finances. They know well the state of competitiveness in the Irish economy. They know well the close eye that international markets are keeping on how we conduct ourselves, the same markets we will have to tap to fund the activities of the state. At least, they should know these things.

Not a week has gone by in the year so far without some economic horror story unfolding. Even the government has, hopefully not too late, recognised the need for radical, painful and visibly strong actions to at least start the process of restoring fiscal balance. Yet in the face of a generational challenge – one that, if not tackled correctly, will mean the economic death of a generation – the ICTU is planning a national strike. If it weren't so serious it would be laughable.

The ICTU is engaging in tantrum politics. When the government woke up and remembered that it had a constitutional duty to govern, regardless of the social partnership framework, it moved on.

Personally, I think the pension levy was the minimum response that could have been implemented in the way of an immediate slicing of public sector pay, but it was a start, and it has now gone through the democratically elected legislature.

The ICTU has now decided that it will hold a gun to the head of the state, and to its own members' heads, in attempting to overturn it. The ICTU states, and I believe it, that it is seeking merely a fairer way to share the pain. However, progress in Northern Ireland for years was held up by neither side being willing to make the first move.

The ICTU has a responsibility and an opportunity to make a move here. Its responsibility is to its own members, most of whom are public servants. By no means all public sector employees are in permanent full-time posts, and redundancies can and do happen. But by and large we are "easy targets" for an initial round of pay retrenchment.

Taking a pay cut is a bitter pill to swallow, but it is as nothing compared to the pain of job losses and business closures.

Part of the fiscal rebalancing will require a reduced pay bill in the public sector and this can only come about through reduced pay or reduced numbers. By standing stubbornly against either, the ICTU runs a serious danger of fanning the smouldering flames of resentment between public and private sector employees.

The ICTU also has an opportunity. It's clear that the unions dearly miss the cosy embrace of power without responsibility that was given them by social partnership. Power, however, corrupts, and the unions should be thankful they can be outside the tent, a loyal, worker-based opposition that can reinvent itself as sensible, inclusive, moderate and mature.

Unless it calls off this lunatic action on 30 March, ICTU will be seen to stand for Incredibly, Contemptibly, Totally Unrealistic.

Brian M Lucey is associate professor of finance, School of Business Studies, Trinity College