Jack Chambers Insults Workers Triggering New Mass Strike

The government has insulted public sector workers once again by refusing to offer a pay rise that protects workers from inflation. But unions have made the right call by announcing a nationwide strike on Thursday November 12th, the day of an EU ministers’ meeting in Dublin.

Jack Chambers has been playing hard ball with unions. The €1.2 billion the government put aside for public sector pay in the recent budget is a 2.5% pay rise, in effect a pay cut with headline inflation at 4.1%.

Not to mention that the headline rate of inflation disguises the real impact of rising rents, rising childcare costs, rising energy bills and rising fuel costs.

Usually the government can rely on union leaders to offer compliance but the government has miscalculated the growing and intense anger among workers. We are suffering from an escalating cost of living crisis and we know full well the government has massive surpluses.

The Red Network opposed the cancellation of the Oct 21st strike because we correctly noted that going into talks prematurely would lead to a bad deal or no deal and we’d have to strike again anyway. We were right.

This stop start approach to action, calling pickets then cancelling them, only empowers the government who think all they have to do is offer the chance of talks and unions will comply. And usually they’re right.

Our union leaders have a bad habit of falling into that trap. But grassroots anger is so high that our leaders understand they can’t put a bad deal to a ballot. We’d just reject it anyway.

Let’s get our workplaces ready for the strike on the 12th of November, dust off your placards, call everyone, sort out the strike committee and picket rosters and let’s call on private sector workers to join the major rally in Dublin on the day.

We can wipe the smirk off Jack Chamber’s smug face if we fight and if we keep the fight going until we win. These strikes need to leave behind an organisational legacy in all our unions, we need to link up grassroots fighters so we are stronger the next time we need to mobilise.

If we do this we might start to realise we have immense power and nothing happens in the economy without us workers. We should be in the driving seat of an economy planned by workers. An assembly of nurses could run the HSE better than Anne O’Connor on her €400k wage.

The strike on Nov 12th is the first step taken by a reawakened working class. It won’t be the last. We’re on the march.