Madam, - Chris Andrews (February 23rd) suggests that there is something inherently undemocratic in SIPTU's affiliation to the Labour Party and in my recent speech in which I referred to the question of a pre-election pact.
The decision to affiliate to the Labour Party has been democratically debated and voted on at various biennial conferences over the years. Every branch in the union is represented, with each delegate representing 500 members. This is entirely democratic and consistent with the practice in the UK and most West European democracies, where trade unions retain links with the social democratic and labour parties. Similarly, in the US, the trade union movement maintains strong links with the Democratic Party.
It has never been an issue in our relationship with either of the major parties in this country, which respect our right to represent our members' legitimate concerns on our own terms. We make no apologies for seeking to further the interests of our members, and of workers generally, through our political affiliation; as we do through organising workers, negotiating with employers and seeking to influence the policy of government and other social partners.
From Mr Andrews's comments I take it he was relying solely on media reports of my speech, which first described it as a call for a Labour-Fine Gael pact and subsequently as a call for a Labour-Fianna Fáil alliance. The full text, which is available on the SIPTU website at www.siptu.ie, spells out our concerns very clearly.
If Mr Andrews is interested in reading the full text he will see that my primary objective in making the speech was not about forming an alternative Government for the sake of it, but to emphasise that any electoral arrangement involving the Labour Party should be based on issues of substance to our members.
I pointed to the desirability of an electoral pact that would deprive extreme neo-liberalism of a walk-over at the next general election. Only then could we hope to see a redistribution of an adequate proportion of our enormous economic growth to secure an improved health service accessible to all, affordable housing and childcare, a better transport infrastructure and a high-quality working environment for all. - Yours, etc.,
JACK O'CONNOR, General President, SIPTU, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.