Trade union leaders are to hold mass demonstrations around the country on Saturday week in support of a “fairer approach” to tacking the economic crisis.
At a press conference following a meeting of Ictu’s executive council it said it would be up to individual trade unions to decide on whether to ballot members on further action.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) today published a 10-point plan which it described as an alternative to measures currently being put in place by the Government.
The 10-point plan includes provisions for a property tax on second homes, higher rates of taxations for the better off, three years’ protection against home repossessions, employment initiatives, and measures to boost consumer confidence.
The plan is also highly critical of the Government’s new pension levy for more than 300,000 public servants. Ictu general secretary David Begg told a press conference after today’s meeting: “In an ideal world unions want the Government to re-engage with on its 10-point plan.
The chair of Ictu’s public service committee Peter McLoone said that he believed there was only one more chance for an agreement to be reached with the Government. He said that if this did not work out he believed people were “prepared to do more”.
“This will not require a lot of winding up. People are prepared to take action on a scale which we have not seen or experienced in a long time,” he sadi.
Siptu president Jack O’Connor said that neither employers, the construction industry federation in the private sector, nor the Government, were honouring the existing national agreements. He said that inevitably this would result in sustained campaigns of industrial action “if they can not be persuaded otherwise”.
This morning, the Psychiatric Nurses Association said the levy was unfair in structure and application, and said serious, co-ordinated action must be taken.
“The PNA believes all public servants will carry their fair share of the financial burden facing the country but we will not be scapegoated," it said.
“Nurses were refused a pay increase by the Benchmarking Body because of the discounting of the value of the Public Service Pension. Now we are being asked to pay for the pension scheme again. Nurses are extremely angry about this levy and fearful that more cuts, by way of tax increases will follow."
