UNIONS HAVE divided on how to respond to the Government’s plans to sell part of the ESB after the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) last week left the ESB group of unions.
The union Unite maintains the Government’s plans to sell part of the ESB are not being driven by the EU-IMF deal but by Fine Gael within Government.
The union strongly opposes the privatisation plans and will ballot members at the power company for industrial action.
However, TEEU general secretary Eamon Devoy said there was no question of balloting its members for strike action and he warned against “knee-jerk reactions” that would play into the hands of foreign energy companies and the privatisation lobby.
Mr Devoy said he was concerned about the pressure the Government was under from the international troika to sell off parts of State energy companies.
Unite said, however, in an internal document that the original EU-IMF deal signed last December did not commit the Government to privatise State assets. For the Government to say that the EU-IMF deal required the sale of assets “is intentionally misleading”.
“Even without the EU-IMF deal, the Government would have proceeded with asset disposal as this was a political policy of the larger party,” says the Unite document.
It points out that the EU-IMF memorandum of understanding contained a commitment that the Government would carry out a review of the energy sectors and consider possible sell-offs of State-owned assets.
Unite said this position changed in the first and second quarterly reviews of the EU-IMF deal which were published after the general election in February.
It said in the first review the term “possible privatisation” had changed to an acknowledgement that the Cabinet would consider a potential programme of asset disposals based on the new programme for government and the report of the McCarthy group on State assets and liabilities.
Unite said the second quarterly review of the EU-IMF agreement went further again. It said this stated that the Government would consider options for an “ambitious” programme of asset disposals.
The union said this document also maintained the Government would prepare a draft programme of asset disposals and discuss it with the troika by the end of this year before making final decisions.
Unite said it was clear the changes of reference to privatisations were not due to pressure from the EU-IMF but came about as a result of the commitments set out in the programme for government after the election.
The programme said that up to €2 billion in State assets could be sold off based on the recommendations of the McCarthy group.
Unite said while Fine Gael and Labour jointly drew up the programme for government, they both campaigned in the election on different platforms on the sale of State assets. Labour was opposed to such a move, while Fine Gael was in favour.
Mr Devoy warned that “all this talk about selling off parts of the ESB comes after a series of disastrous privatisation programmes”.
He said “if the sale of a minority shareholding is to be considered it should be in in the context of a sale to pension funds or other investment vehicles that would take a positive long-term view rather than leave itself open to anonymous speculators or other energy companies”.