Siptu general president Jack O'Connor has urged delegates at a special conference not to reject the new national pay deal unless there was a better alternative.
Addressing the conference, he admitted that while it was not the best deal ever negotiated, the agreement had been struck at "certainly the worst time for negotiations since these national agreements began".
"It was the first time Wall Street had crashed since the first Wall Street crash in 1929 and the state of public finances is such that not since the 1970s, if ever in the history of the state, were revenues actually declining," Mr O'Connor said.
However, he said negotiators had achived the objectives set out by the union, protecting living standards, secured employment rights and had been given a Government commitment to outlaw victimisation of workers by employers for being trade union activists.
Siptu vice president Brendan Hayes said that while times were hard for workers, it did not make the agreement a good or bad deal. "If you think you can achieve more outside the deal you should vote against it," he said, adding that a lot of members would not achieve more in a free-for-all.
However, at a press conference due to be held in Dublin tomorrow, some trade unionists are expected to call on their members to reject the pay deal.
The conference will be hosted by the regional secretary of Unite, Jimmy Kelly, and will have a number of speakers from the CPSU, which represents lower paid civil servants; teachers' union ASTI; and Siptu shop tstewards from the transport and fire services.
Unite has already recommend rejection of the proposed national pay deal in an upcoming ballot of members.