Siptu rejects call for pay freeze

Amhran Nua

From the Irish Times this morning, looks like the uniojns are digging in:

Siptu has this morning rejected an Ibec call for a pay freeze and said it was time for employers to "make a contribution" to economic recovery.

Responding to the employers' call for a 12-month pay freeze, Siptu general president Jack O’Connor said: "Ibec does not seem to have copped on that the game has changed. We are fed up hearing for the last 12 months what is being demanded of workers as a contribution to national recovery.

“What we want to know is what employers’ organisation and their constituency are going to contribute, because the wealthy and the people at the top of society have contributed nothing yet.”

A deferral of pay increases until 2011 is being sought by Ibec in any new talks on a social partnership deal. It said yesterday it was prepared to walk away from the partnership process if an agreement did not contain a pay freeze of that duration.

In a statement last night, Ibec said any expectations of pay rises next year were “unrealistic”.

It again called for the pay terms of the national agreement negotiated in September 2008 to be formally suspended. It said this pay agreement – which provided for increases of 6 per cent phased over 21 months – was no longer sustainable.

I was wondering, could we maybe hand the unions a few big trailers of money and enough petrol to burn the lot of it - its the only way I can imagine they could make the recession any worse, beyond what they are doing.

Biggins

From the Metro in another thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62397005&postcount=20

Amhran Nua

Biggins wrote: »

From the Metro in another thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62397005&postcount=20

I'm not sure myself but might there be copyright issues about scanning in whole pages of the newspapers and posting them on boards there?

Biggins

Amhran Nua wrote: »

I'm not sure myself but might there be copyright issues about scanning in whole pages of the newspapers and posting them on boards there?

Well as this one is a free paper and also they willing supply it into the public domain...

To quote yourself

"...there's no such thing as bad PR." - for the paper involved!

Amhran Nua

Biggins wrote: »

Well as this one is a free paper and also they willing supply it into the public domain...

To quote yourself

"...there's no such thing as bad PR." - for the paper involved!

The paper might be free but they do sell advertising on it. By replicating their works elsewhere are you not handing out the content without the adverts? Actually you know what, I don't really care. Back to business.

paddyduc

Amhran Nua wrote: »

From the Irish Times this morning, looks like the uniojns are digging in:

I was wondering, could we maybe hand the unions a few big trailers of money and enough petrol to burn the lot of it - its the only way I can imagine they could make the recession any worse, beyond what they are doing.

Sure they're getting trailers of money every week out of everyone's paypack.

turgon

So let me get this straight:

When the economy is improving the unions want more wages....

Fathomable.

When the economy is plummeting the unions want more wages....

Not so fathomable.

Unions Greed > Employers Greed

djpbarry

I just saw coverage of Siptu's conference in Tralee on the news; Jack O'Connor's assertion that the wealthy be made pay before the 'workers of Ireland' are hit was greeted with cheers and applause. The hypocrisy was obviously lost on the delegates.

ednwireland

thats allright, they arent getting a pay freeze, its pay cuts (or am i missing something )

stevedublin

djpbarry wrote: »

I just saw coverage of Siptu's conference in Tralee on the news; Jack O'Connor's assertion that the wealthy be made pay before the 'workers of Ireland' are hit was greeted with cheers and applause. The hypocrisy was obviously lost on the delegates.

The hypocrisy is lost on me too. Why shouldn't the wealthy have to make cuts too? Why do only the workers have to suffer for the mistakes of the wealthy decision-makers?

BennyLava

Jack O'Connor is on circa €100,000 a year isn't he + expenses

him and the other top brass in the unions are as much part of the problem as the politicians, developers and bankers

wasn't the head of Impact on the board of FAS

They're all the same, at the end of the day they'll be fine and its the ordinary workers in the public and private sectors who will foot the bills and suffer the job losses

Amhran Nua

stevedublin wrote: »

Why shouldn't the wealthy have to make cuts too?

Can you clarify there, who exactly are these "wealthy"? I don't want to hear tax dodgers or offshore accounts, thats in the extreme minority of taxpayers. As it stands the top earners already cover 80% of income taxes paid, what more do you want, or is this just the party line?

stevedublin

BennyLava wrote: »

Jack O'Connor is on circa €100,000 a year isn't he + expenses

him and the other top brass in the unions are as much part of the problem as the politicians, developers and bankers

fine, let them take pay cuts too.

BennyLava wrote: »

its the ordinary workers in the public and private sectors who will foot the bills and suffer the job losses

This was the point I was trying to make