TRADE UNION VIEW:TRADE UNIONS would only "punish" themselves if they failed to back the Lisbon Treaty, the leader of a public sector union argued yesterday.
Civil, Public and Services Union general secretary Blair Horan made the comment in advance of an Irish Congress of Trade Unions meeting next week to decide its position on the treaty.
Mr Horan sharply criticised the Government for its stance on the EU’s agency workers’ rights directive and legislation governing contract workers.
But he went on: “To try and punish the Irish Government for their Eurosceptic approach to EU social policy would only punish ourselves and be counter-productive.”
Mr Horan said he would propose that the Ictu “backs the Lisbon Treaty and campaigns for a Yes vote” when its executive council meets to consider the matter next Wednesday.
The intervention by Mr Horan is significant given the refusal of leading trade unionists, many of whom have expressed anger over the “exploitation” of agency workers, to back the treaty up to now.
In a statement last night, Mr Horan said Lisbon added “important social values” to the EU’s internal market rules, targeting full employment, social progress, along with combating social exclusion and discrimination. He said that in the past decade unions had been concerned at the neo-liberal orientation of economic policy, and there was no doubt that this treaty added a very important social dimension.
“The reference to ‘an internal market where competition is free and undistorted’ that was in the European Union constitution has been removed from Article 3(2),” he said.
The importance for workers of giving extra powers to the European Parliament, as would happen under Lisbon, could be illustrated, he said, by MEPs’ opposition to the European Commission’s original services directive.
“The importance of co-decision was seen very clearly with the services directive when its original neo-liberal orientation was significantly altered by amendment in the European Parliament.
“Quite apart from the improvement of the social dimension included in the treaty itself, the capacity of trade unions and other civil society groups to influence legislation through the European Parliament will be significant and this in itself will contribute to the social dimension of Europe.
“The Lisbon Treaty also gives the parliament a veto on the nomination of the president of the commission.”
Mr Horan rejected claims by No campaigners that the treaty would facilitate the privatisation of health and education services through the use of qualified majority rules in votes of EU ministers.The treaty did not affect the competence of member states to provide, commission and organise non-economic services of general interest, he said.
