Solidarity me arse

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Thursday October 20, 2005 17:01 by SIPTU member

McLoone shows his true colours

Today Peter McLoone the president of the ICTU has come out and made a staunch defence of social partnership. As far as the Loone is concerned partnership prevents the race to the bottom. He bigs up the fact that Bertie (da socialist - no sniggering at the back) is a strong supporter of partnership but that IBEC are cool on it.

This defence of partnership and Bertie will come as no surprise to many left wing activists in Dublin who witnessed Impact being used as an auxilary police force during the bin tax struggle but its timing might well shock other trade union activists when SIPTU and even David Begg have expressed reservations at the value of a new deal.

McLoone went on to talk about the need to balance the exploitation of workers with protecting the competitive postion of companies that respect their workers. Shooting across SIPTU's bows he warned unions not to "talk themselves out of a deal before discussions even begin".

So without seeing what is going to be agreed with respect to 'social dumping' (i.e Irish Ferries etc,) the president of the ICTU is prepared to enter talks blindly. With friends like this................