Madam, – Jack O’Connor, general secretary of SIPTU, and Macdara Doyle, of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (December 2nd), are in denial about any union responsibility for Ireland’s economic downturn. Success, as the saying goes, has many fathers but failure is an orphan. The trade union movement, however, no matter how much its leaders dissemble, bears as much responsibility for the crisis Ireland is facing as the banks, the developers and the Government.
The banking crisis occurred because of unsound lending practices by some of Ireland’s leading financial institutions. What triggered the unprecedented demand for credit was the inflated house prices during the years of the boom. House prices always rise after wages rise – this is a law of economics as much as gravity is central to physics. It was the union movement, through the deeply flawed social partnership and benchmarking models – where the government effectively bribed the unions not to wreck the economy through industrial action – that pushed wages in the public sector beyond economically competitive levels and helped fuel the property boom. Denying this fact is as illogical as denying that two plus two is four.
Trade unions are essential to the health of civil society, and, at their best, are a bulwark against the power of business and the state. That they failed miserably during the Celtic Tiger years by following the flawed models of social partnership and benchmarking does not discredit the union movement – they were not alone in getting policy wrong, but it does their reputation no good to deny the blatantly obvious and wash their hands of any responsibility for the collapse of the Irish economy. – Yours, etc.
DECLAN MANSFIELD,
Cardington Way,
Huntingdale,
Perth, Australia.