Des Geraghty argues that support for the people of the candidate states is the major reason for voting Yes to Nice.
There are many solid reasons why people should vote Yes to Nice and many serious reasons why the national executive council of SIPTU recommends that they do so.
In our view Nice is fundamentally about solidarity with the people of the accession countries. The ethos of our trade union movement has always been to campaign for better pay and working conditions for all employees - regardless of national frontiers.
For the candidate countries, significant economic growth, and with it, improvements in workers' pay and conditions can be secured most effectively through EU membership. The Nice Treaty would provide the institutional framework for this. Therefore, in the trade union spirit of solidarity and fairness, there is a strong moral argument for Irish workers supporting Nice.
Reinforcing this moral argument is Ireland's experience of joining the EEC. When we joined in 1973, GDP per capita here was only 60.7 per cent of the EEC average.
Yet despite our less developed economy, we were welcomed into the club by our European peers.
Today, the benefits of this welcome are evident in our economic indicators. By the end of 2001, GDP per capita in Ireland had risen to 121.4 per cent of the EU average and our growth rate heads the European league table. So our failure to give the candidate countries the same chances we were given thirty years ago would be unconscionable.
Aside from solidarity with workers in the candidate countries, there are other good reasons to back the treaty - such as our need to support the European social model. The European social market model of capitalism represents a distinct and important counter-balance to the American model of liberal capitalism.
In contrast to Europe's focus on the social aspects of the employment contract, the American model promotes increasing inequality and a deterioration in living standards for many workers. In the longer term, the European social model needs a strong and united Europe, and we must co-operate with our fellow European citizens to advance that model.
Nevertheless, social dialogue will continue in Europe for the immediate future, irrespective of the referendum outcome. Until now Ireland has participated actively in this dialogue and played a key role in shaping EU policy and legislation.
This involvement has yielded real benefits for Irish workers. Firstly, practically the entire body of recent employment law has its roots in EU directives, for example:
Equal pay.
Workplace health and safety.
Parental leave.
Part time workers' rights.
Our involvement in "social Europe" has also enabled Ireland to contribute to policy on structural funding priorities. This has financed a range of key national programmes on education, training, infrastructural improvement etc. By rejecting Nice, we could be marginalising ourselves in this decision-making loop, and isolating ourselves from a strategic role in shaping the EU's future direction.
Some workers may be concerned that the treaty might lead to uncontrolled immigration and the undercutting of wage rates. But the truth is that foreign citizens do not want to emigrate for work - they want to work in well-paid jobs in their own countries. EU membership will help to make this possible.
So rather than stimulating migration, the ratification of the Nice Treaty would provide the institutional framework for improving living standards in the candidate countries, encouraging their workers to remain at home. This logic is supported by past experience. Studies of Greece, Spain and Portugal after their accession to the EU indicate no tendency towards significantly greater emigration.
As for the possibility of migrants from the candidate countries undercutting local wage levels, this is less likely to materialise in an expanded EU. SIPTU has a proven track record in organising immigrant workers and securing their full entitlements in terms of wages and working conditions.
Of course, it is a constant struggle, but mainly because these immigrant workers are not EU citizens at present and, therefore, often victimised by unscrupulous employers who abuse the work permit system.
So any further immigration of workers from the candidate countries following the transition period would be met with an upward movement in wages to Irish levels rather than a downward movement to eastern Europe levels. And with the accelerated economic development of their native countries the majority of these workers would wish to return to secure similar advances at home, just as Ireland's economic progress has seen our own emigrants come home.
SIPTU stands in the internationalist tradition of Larkin and Connolly. We oppose exploitation and war and favour a new world order based on solidarity, human rights, international co-operation and peace. A stronger EU can heighten the influence of those values in the international arena.
Des Geraghty is the general president of SIPTU - Ireland's largest trade union.