SIPTU Office - Kilkenny

mousehouse

Just walked past the SIPTU office in Kilkenny on Patrick Street and I guess they are supporting Labour and Ann Phelan, her posters are all over the front of the building and on every window. I am sorry but my vote is now gone for Labour, it is clear they are a union driven and in my opinion the Unions are one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in now.

patrickc

mousehouse wrote: »

Just walked past the SIPTU office in Kilkenny on Patrick Street and I guess they are supporting Labour and Ann Phelan, her posters are all over the front of the building and on every window. I am sorry but my vote is now gone for Labour, it is clear they are a union driven and in my opinion the Unions are one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in now.

totally agree with you

Firetrap

Were Labour not always on the side of the unions?

DerryRed

mousehouse wrote: »

Just walked past the SIPTU office in Kilkenny on Patrick Street and I guess they are supporting Labour and Ann Phelan, her posters are all over the front of the building and on every window. I am sorry but my vote is now gone for Labour, it is clear they are a union driven and in my opinion the Unions are one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in now.

Yes the Unions need to take some blame, but it pales in comparison to the corporate and individualistic greed that led us to bailing out the banks and the bond holders.

granturismo

mousehouse wrote: »

Just walked past the SIPTU office in Kilkenny on Patrick Street and I guess they are supporting Labour ...

The SIPTU office has always put up Labour posters, have you never noticed them before? Other SIPTU offices around the country also put up Labour posters.

SIPTU have traditionally supported Labour - but not all unions do.

catbear

I agree with DerryRed. The unions represent their members but what influence they have in government depends on the government of the day. How many FF/FG are union members? Labour doesn't have the monopoly.

Separately I believe unions are going through a very rough transition right now. Aer Lingus being the best example, the friction is between realists and idealists. When credit was easy and money was no problem the idealists were winning but in austerity the idealists are completely out of step with the nation.

Another point is that unions are less relevant today when individuals have better employment rights and easier means to enforce them, a situation ironically brought about by union movements of the past. Unions got lazy and have a lot of catching up to become relevant again.

The big issue that dominates this election is the bank bailout and its consequences. We were due a collapse in the housing market anyway but the bailout put non participants in the bubble on the hook for other peoples debts. Labour voted against the bailout, something did have to be done at the time but deposits could have been secured, bad banks closed and the bondholders take the hit for what was essentially their risk, not the Irish taxpayers.

For whatever reason Labour choose to oppose it their stance is the closest to my own position, while I am at odds with everyother party. I have little time for the current Irish union ethos of job protection at the cost to everyone else but as I said union votes go in every direction, my anti bailout vote can only go one place.

PhilipMarlowe

@catbear re: Labour voting against... http://politico.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7193:political-consensus-behind-disastrous-decision&catid=40:politics&Itemid=877

femur61

Labour = unions. Always have never thought any different.

up for anything

There are unions and there are unions.

I remember taking my ex's BATU union contribution down to the SIPTU office one evening a few years after coming home from the UK. I asked the gentleman I handed the best part of £500 over to what benefits came with union membership besides the obvious and he laughed in my face and said "nothing". I told him that with being an member of ITGWU in the UK came benefits like group insurance schemes etc and he told me that BATU was too small to organise things like that that. A union with 10,000 members! FFS! I could negotiate some nice deals if I had that many prospective customers to offer an insurance company. I'd love to know what the union contributions were spent on!

Apart from that it was a crony system. If someone rang up the union rep to ask if he knew of any work going, he never, ever knew of anything and yet his friends were always in work. :mad:

So I doubt I'll be voting Labour if they are supported by a shower of tossers like that.

seaniefitz

i respect everyones right to vote as they see fit however for the purpose of balance i would like to list the membership of social partnership.

The negotiating parties to the social partnership agreement Towards 2016 included the Government, trade unions, employers, environmental organisations, farming organisations and the community and voluntary sector, as follows:

• Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)
• Service Industrial Professional and Technical Union
• Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC)
• Small Firms’ Association (SFA)
• Irish Exporters’ Association (IEA)
• Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC)
• Irish Hotels Federation
• Chambers Ireland
• Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA)
• Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA)
• Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society Ltd. (ICOS)
• Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association
• Macra na Feirme
• Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU)
• Congress Centres Network
• CORI Justice Commission
• National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI)
• National Association of Building Co-Operatives (NABCO)
• Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH)
• Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
• Age Action Ireland
• The Carers Association
• The Wheel
• The Disability Federation of Ireland
• Irish Rural Link
• The Irish Senior Citizens’ Parliament
• The Children’s Rights Alliance
• Protestant Aid
• Community Platform
• National Women's Council of Ireland
• Environmental Pillar

ChristIsMurph

mousehouse wrote: »

Just walked past the SIPTU office in Kilkenny on Patrick Street and I guess they are supporting Labour and Ann Phelan, her posters are all over the front of the building and on every window. I am sorry but my vote is now gone for Labour, it is clear they are a union driven and in my opinion the Unions are one of the reasons we are in the situation we are in now.

I find this to be very odd as Kathleen Funchion actually WORKS for SIPTU, surely it would make more sense for them to have her poster up?

catbear

Licksy wrote: »

@catbear re: Labour voting against... http://politico.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7193:political-consensus-behind-disastrous-decision&catid=40:politics&Itemid=877

Thanks for that, plus

We also know now from the documents released by the PAC, that the form of the guarantee that was given was not recommended by the government’s own advisors Merrill Lynch, nor is there evidence that senior civil servants were recommending this approach either. So, at this point, the last refuge for those who want to argue that the government’s approach on September 30 was the right decision is this misleading Honohan-supports-it talking point.

For what it’s worth, also, I think one could argue just as strongly that it was Labour who showed more courage in objecting to the guarantee: Indeed, to this day, Labour are still getting flak from government politicians and commentators like Collins for failing to fall in line with the consensus to support the guarantee. Moreover, my understanding of Fine Gael’s position at this point is that they consider themselves to have been essentially misled by the government into supporting the guarantee.

http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/tag/september-2008-guarantee/

I've had my fill of unions, they're approaching their Pan-Am moment.

Good to hear from Christismurph, you haven't been around for a while. For what it's worth I actually think a majority FG government is a strong possibility as some diehard FFers will do as British conservatives did when Labour won, they simple didn't turn up. 8/1 on paddypower at the moment!

ChristIsMurph

catbear wrote: »

Good to hear from Christismurph, you haven't been around for a while.

I've been here! Just haven't been posting as much, usually check on a couple of times a week. But yeah a FG majority govt. is looking more and more likely at this stage, if the election had another 2 weeks on it, it'd happen I think, but right now the support will be just too week, having that many indos propping up the govt. might just be too unstable, so the idea of going in with Labour would seem a bit more prosperous

Benny Cake

I heard Jack O'Connor (head of SIPTU) promoting Labour on the radio this evening & that was enough to secure my vote for ABL (anybody but Labour!!)

nhg

ChristIsMurph wrote: »

I find this to be very odd as Kathleen Funchion actually WORKS for SIPTU, surely it would make more sense for them to have her poster up?

My thoughts as well

catbear

D_Red_Army wrote: »

I heard Jack O'Connor (head of SIPTU) promoting Labour on the radio this evening & that was enough to secure my vote for ABL (anybody but Labour!!)

,
Does that make all other parties anti union?

Unions in Ireland are in serious trouble. David Begg gave out about crony banks yet he can't see his part in the crisis, he was on the board of the central bank all through the lending spree.

catbear

catbear wrote: »

8/1 on paddypower at the moment!

Today FG are 6/1 for a majority government.

DerryRed

catbear wrote: »

Today FG are 6/1 for a majority government.

Oh dear. If this happens we'll all deserve what we get.