WORKERS' RIGHTS: Senior figuers in the trade union movement have urged a Yes vote on the Lisbon Treaty, stressing the advantages to be gained by Irish workers if the Charter of Fundamental Rights is incorporated into Irish law.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin yesterday, organised by the Irish Alliance for Europe, former Siptu president Des Geraghty said it was "absolutely vital" to get the charter into European law as a "first stage" to having its provisions adopted domestically.
Former Siptu general secretary Billy Attley said: "Most of the progressive legislation protecting Irish workers has emanated from the European Union."
But he recalled: "We had long battles to have them implemented in this country."
The Charter of Fundamental Rights provided "an opportunity to secure them for all time". The treaty was the one opportunity that we now have to put these in solid concrete for the future. Bringing about a document such as the charter was the reason why the labour movement was founded, he added.
Mr Attley said the charter could be dispensed with if the treaty was voted down this time. "If this treaty is lost - and I hope it won't be - it won't come back in the shape that it's in at the moment.
"The social element will disappear. The people who stand to lose most are working people."
Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg warned against rejecting the charter. "You would be hard-pressed I think to find a collection of civil, political, economic and social rights gathered together in the same way in any other political entity throughout the world."
He said it would be, "very, very foolish to have the Irish people voting on a provision which gives you these rights and to say that we don't want it - it would be absolutely crazy for us to take that point of view".
Commenting on the position of Siptu, which has sought automatic collective bargaining rights for all workers as its price for backing Lisbon, Mr Begg said: "It is different from congress at a tactical level". But he added: "In every other respect there's no difference."
Senator Joe O'Toole emphasised that voting for the treaty was the obvious choice for trade unionists: "This is the biggest no-brainer I've ever looked at." Lisbon contained some of the things we have spent our lives looking for.
"I believe that workers' rights are enhanced by what a number of us here refer to as the prize of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is an opportunity for Ireland, an opportunity for workers in Ireland, an opportunity for trade unionism in Europe. It would be appalling not to support it."