Union Pay Talks Won’t Deliver Without Worker Action

Trade unions representing public sector workers are due to enter pay talks with the government in the next few weeks. Of course, they have been in the media talking tough but every pay agreement in recent memory has been a terrible deal in real terms for workers, in effect taking a pay cut, with below inflation pay increases.

“There is an expectation in Government that the union side will seek hefty pay increases, as workers have seen the value of their wages diminished by the recent spike in inflation”, the media reports.

Inflation has been high for years now and our wages are diminished because of the failure of the leadership in our unions to act to direct public workers’ anger. They have held us back from taking serious action.

A 2023 Fórsa survey with 20,000 responses showed for 85% pay was a key issue with 95% saying they would vote for industrial action if pay increases were below or did not match inflation. Despite this, needless to say a deal that was well below inflation was hammered out by the suits.

Fórsa Secretary General Kevin Callanan said this back in 2023:

“There can be no doubt that the cost-of-living must continue to be the main focus for unions in pay talks this year… unions will concentrate on a number of key cost-of-living issues, including the need to make good the shortfall in pay against inflation during the remaining term of the current pay agreement.”

Doesn’t this all sound familiar?

The “pay and numbers strategy” of the government is a plan to reduce the number of workers in the health service, not replacing vacant posts to save money. Workers voted by a majority of for industrial action up to and including strike action.

Again, the unions pulled back claiming they got a commitment from the government side to begin filling vacant posts. This did not happen and workers are now underpaid and overworked doing the work of their own role and the work of the empty posts in their workplaces. More work, less real pay.

The HSE has again paused recruitment in complete defiance of our unions showing zero respect or fear of workers. Meanwhile our union leadership rake it in with their massive wages. The head of Fórsa has pay linked to that of a local authority CEO - getting between €185,000 to €210,000+ a year.

This upcoming pay negotiation will be no different. Our leadership will negotiate a below inflation pay increase dragged out over years. They will not address any of the serious concerns of public workers and will kick us while we are down by agreeing to absurd “efficiency improvements.”

From the SNA’s who work an extra 72 hours per year to teachers still working extra so called “Croke Park hours” to the pay disputes of the ambulance workers, from Section 39 care workers, to the pension and pay disputes of school secretaries & caretakers.

When it seems every public worker has a dispute you have to look at the root cause. Our union leaders are holding us back from real action. We saw recently how quickly farmers and hauliers shut down the country with the fuel protests and won concessions straight away.

If our union suits refuse to plan for real action to get results on pay and conditions it is because they are not pressured by the dues paying members. We need workers in the driving seat of the unions so we can fight without one hand tied behind our backs.

The Russian revolutionary Lenin called for working class activists to systematically carry out agitation and propaganda within the unions, persistently and patiently winning over workers until our class understood its power.

As frustrating as big bureaucratised unions are if working class socialists are to win over workers we cannot “fence ourselves off from them.” Our highly paid union leadership are more than happy for dedicated and class-conscious socialists to withdraw from the unions - it is one less thorn in their side.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions represent 800,000 workers and has the means to organise them into a real force for change in our society. Marxists must work as activists within all the unions to push for militant tactics such as strikes and solidarity actions.

We must build class consciousness within our workplaces and within the unions by linking economic struggles and opposition to rotten deals to the need to put workers in the driving seat of the unions and of society at large, for a working class revolution.

We must challenge bureaucratic control of our unions and use the unions to expose the leadership for the frauds they are - the Irish union leadership are collaborators with the employers and government and hold back the revolutionary potential of the workers.

By not joining our workplace unions and getting active we would only strengthen the hold of the sellout leadership and allow them to maintain ideological dominance over the Irish working class.

We must expose the limitations of the current worker employer relationship maintained by the union bureaucracy and offer a real revolutionary alternative. Our work begins now.