"One truth we all have to face up to is that we cannot continue to cut taxes for everyone and end up with a fair society," the outgoing Irish Congress of Trade Unions president, Mr Peter Cassells, has said. He was addressing delegates at the ICTU's biennial conference in Bundoran.
In a debate on the economy and social strategy that revolved around the theme of "Nearer to Brussels than Boston", several union leaders outlined their fears that the Government was increasingly following a US market-driven model.
Hardly any opposition was voiced to the EU-orientated social partnership model in the absence of the suspended ATGWU leader, Mr Mick O'Reilly. One delegate from the Civil and Public Service Union, Mr Terry Kelleher, called for "national days of action" to highlight issues such as low pay and the cost of housing.
"There is so much talk you can do, but the time comes when the talk has to end and the action has to take place," he said. The SIPTU president, Mr Des Geraghty, promised plenty of action campaigns. While Mr Cassells warned against complacency in some unions following the signing of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, Mr Geraghty said no one could accuse SIPTU of such lapses. "We have supported dozens of disputes since the PPF was signed about low pay for women workers and other issues," he said.
He also said he refused to apologise to those opponents of national agreements who said the unions were getting too close to the Government. The same people had dismissed the national minimum wage as an irrelevance, but figures showed wage rates for low-paid women workers had increased by 2 per cent within six months of the legislation, compared with an average of 0.5 per cent a year previously.
Tax reforms to help the low-paid also remained important, because 52 per cent of PAYE workers earned less than £15,000 a year and 65 per cent less than £20,000. Experience had shown that when national agreements broke down the strongest had always done best out of local bargaining.
Mr Cassells said the social partnership approach had seen the trade union movement through stormy waters in the past, but he was not sure it would do so in the future.
Like ICTU's new president, Ms Inez McCormack, he warned unions against complacency. Partnership "must develop or die. There is a feeling abroad that the engine of partnership can be switched off once an agreement is signed and started again when it is time to negotiate the next one," he said.
This did nothing for the credibility of the process. Nor did the attitude of those unions which took the benefits of the EU social model for granted and allowed the forces of reaction to mobilise public opinion against the so-called "interference" from Brussels bureaucrats in the free market and in the Irish way of life.