PAY AND PARTNERSHIP

JOAN TIMONEY,

Madam, - Reading your Editorial of December 18th, I remembered the time, before the national wage agreements and the development of the social partnership model, when union officials were given the opportunity to demonstrate their effectiveness at local level.

While negotiating at local level may today be thought of as belonging to the dark ages, it gave union members the opportunity to get involved in making decisions which would ultimately affect their working lives.

Is that phase of industrial history about to repeat itself? - Yours, etc.,

JOAN TIMONEY, Elm Way, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.