The president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Patricia McKeown has said that it fully supported the strike by electricians.
Addressing the opening of Ictu biennial conference in Tralee she said that the TEEU and its members were exercising their “fundamental human right to strike having exhausted all other legitimate means”.
“I dismiss with contempt the claims that this strike action is damaging the economic - others have done that to stunning affect,” she said
Ms McKeown said that despite disingenuous headlines in the press about the electricians seeking an 11 per cent pay rise, they were on strike because “the employers have walked off with the money owed to them for the pay and pensions”.
“We wish them well and we will be with them to the end,” she said.
Ms McKeown pledged the full support of the biennial conference to the TEEU and its actions.
The leader of the Labour Party Eamon Gilmore told the conference that Tánaiste Mary Coughlan should direct the Labour Court to intervene in the electricians dispute.
He said the Government had power under the 1990 Industrial Relations Act to direct the Labour Court to enter the fray and to bring the sides together in cases where the dispute was of particular national significance.
Mr Gilmore said there appeared to be "quite a gulf" between the parties and that the Government had the power to direct the Labour Court to go in.
The Labour Party leader said the electricians dispute had wider implications than for the trade union and employers immediately involved.
In a statement this afternoon, however, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (Isme) condemned what it said was Ictu's lack of leadership and its support of the strike.
Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said: “It is beyond comprehension that, at a time when an additional 4,000 individuals a week are ‘signing on’, with pay cuts the order of the day for those lucky enough to be in employment, that Ictu do not have the ability to stop this madness and insist that the TEEU agree to face to face negotiation”.
“This strike is akin to economic suicide, with the direct responsibility placed on the trade union leadership who are prepared to lead their members onto the dole queues while telling the world ‘we are closed for business’," he said.
