Care Worker Explains Why We Need November 12th Strike

Public sector pay talks broke down over the weekend with no deal on offer that union bosses felt they could sell to us workers. The government has tried to hold back the wave of anger sweeping the rest of Europe over the cost-of-living crisis and the fuel protests earlier in the year haven’t returned.

The small business owners leading the blockages got what they wanted which was tax refunds for fuel. Capitalism is in crisis and the government here know that the public sector strike is the first battle major battle in a war they will lose long term unless they get ahead of public sector workers.

They already have a headstart with a constitution which says employers don’t have to recognise unions and laws passed since the 1980’s which leaves us with some of the most restrictive industrial relations laws in the world.

Looking back at previous disputes where the government played hard ball like last year’s School Secretaries and Caretaker strike, the government dragged it out over a year refusing to back down.

They learned from that dispute and are now employing the same delay and frustrate tactics.

We can look at that dispute and others to see how our union leaders usually act – in the past they have given in at the first opportunity and settled. “This is the best we can hope for” they often say and then and refuse to fight on.

The anger among workers today means they know they must appear to fight but their instinct to go back into talks means they often cancel upcoming strikes at the first opportunity as we saw with the suspended strike day on the 21st of October.

This government is happy to waste workers time playing games - we must keep this in mind for the week ahead of the planned strike on the 12th of November and demand a harder line from our unions. They know they can’t get a bad deal through in ballots.

But their instinct is to go back into talks. The government senses this and sees it as a weakness. They exploit it. Only determined struggle can wipe the smirk off Jack Chamber’s face.

Our union leadership doesn’t have the heart for any kind of long battle, It is up to us as workers to push on for a real win. The kind of sustained strike action we need to win decent pay is the last thing highly paid union leaders like Fórsa’s Kevin Callinan, INTO leader John Boyle and ICTU head Owen Reidy want to happen.

But they’re afraid of not being able to sell a bad deal and they must talk tough or risk losing members. Unions in Ireland have decreased in density from around 36% in 2003 to 25% today. They have seen a massive bump in member numbers since the Summer, because grassroots workers want to fight.

The danger is a retreat with a halfway decent deal will frustrate workers. We must keep the pressure on union HQs and make sure they do not pull the plug on the industrial action planned for November 12th to show good faith ahead of further talks.

They must not accept WRC mediation or any other mechanism designed to slow worker momentum. October 14th was an amazing show of worker power. We went out on pickets in our tens of thousands.

If we win our success will inspire other workers to fight. A 24-hour work stoppage with massive rallies on the 12th will fill all workers with confidence. Just by seeing huge numbers of workers standing side by side demanding fair pay.

A successful public sector strike can inspire private sector workers to take action and begin to threaten the whole system of worker exploitation we live under. This is why on the 12th of November other workers in the private sector should come out and join the major rally planned for that day.

This is a struggle between us workers and our employers and our unions are happy with the mechanisms of the status quo. By accepting a framework set up by the bosses and the state the job of our unions becomes settling disputes within this framework set up by the state to defend the capitalist system.

And the high incomes of the union bureaucrat is won from being an intermediary between employers and workers in the current economic system. This means they only benefit if that system remains.

Their cozy relationships with the employers and government would be threatened if strikes go on too long. We must learn from recent strikes and work to rules that we must not give up the strike until our demands are met. October 14th showed the massive power we have and polls show the public are behind us.

This government has no problem acting in bad faith and giving nothing to workers once our strike leverage is given up. Every strike reminds our bosses that it is us workers who are the real masters and not them. November 12th needs to happen.