The promise last night by SIPTU President Jack O’Connor of an escalation of public service industrial action will get a positive echo from many workers who saw their wages slashed by over 15% last year between levies and the budget cuts.

I said last month that the work to rule was an inadequate response to the cuts and in reality a de-escalation from what was promised by the union leadership in December. The nature of the escalation promised by Jack O’Connor is unspecified but I fear his description of “carefully and incrementally escalating” action will still fall far short of what is required. Action is needed that will be felt by the government!

This government will not simply be negotiated into a settlement that includes the reversal of last year’s cut which is still the official aim of the movement. In that sense, there are mixed signals coming from the trade union leaders, who despite the treatment meted out to them by the government in the run up to the budget, have sought, informally at this stage, to restart talks.

There is a widespread belief that the union leadership is willing to settle over last year’s cuts in return for a promise of no more pay cuts in next December’s budget. This would not be acceptable.

The union leadership continues to be hampered by a lack of a real political and economic alternative, which at a critical stage last year led them to accepting the principle of cutbacks. A new direction is clearly needed for the movement.

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