The Government has failed to support and protect workers in vulnerable industries from global competition, it was claimed today.
Siptu general secretary Joe O'Flynn said the manufacturing sector had gained very little from the Celtic Tiger and jobs were under continuous threat.
"Many workers have recently lost their jobs as a direct result of competition from the Far East and elsewhere and many more are working in a very uncertain climate," he told the union's South West Regional Conference in Tralee.
Siptu condemned the lack of any meaningful support from Government in identifying and addressing the challenges facing certain Irish industries.
But Mr O'Flynn said international competition was not the only danger.
He claimed the privatisation of services in local authorities was a major threat to established rates of pay and conditions of employment.
"In the private sector there are many employers, whose workers are in unions, paying decent rates of pay and conditions and trying to compete with employers whose workers are unorganised and therefore often exploited," he added. "This is why we must tackle unfair competition by organising workers."
Siptu has recently established an Organising Unit to focus on structuring workers in companies which have union members as well has those with no professional representation.
Mr O'Flynn told the 400 delegates that he sincerely hoped newly appointed Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Micheal Martin, would be more favourably disposed to working with Siptu than his predecessor, Ms Mary Harney.
He called on Mr Martin to plough resources into Social and Community Employment schemes, claiming the Government's lack of interest in them to date was effecting the underprivileged and the marginalised.
"The programme has a unique function in providing services and facilities which would simply not exist if the schemes were not in place," he said.
If the Government fails to honour tax commitments made to unions during negotiations on Part Two of Sustaining Progress, he said Siptu would seriously question its continued involvement in social partnership.
PA