Need for workers to organise never greater

Statement by RSF Vice President Des Dalton

Commenting on an address given by Professor Kathleen Lynch of UCD’s Equality Studies Centre at a conference on equality and inclusion organised by Pobal on November 22, in which she said that the 26-Counties was “bottom of the league” in terms of giving workers a share of national wealth, Republican Sinn Féin Vice President Des Dalton said that her comments further underlined the “need for the Trade Union Movement to ensure that all workers are organised and members of a union.”

“Professor Lynch’s assertion that the share of wealth going to workers has been falling at a higher rate in the 26-Counties than in the EU generally since the early 1990s further underlines the need for the Trade Union Movement to ensure that all workers are organised and members of a union. Workers have never been more under threat, the ‘out sourcing’ of jobs and the use of ‘employment agencies’ are the latest and most potent weapons used by employers to undermine the hard fought for rights of all workers.

“Workers need to realise that the ‘race to the bottom’ in relation to wages, and the hard fought for terms and conditions effects every worker effects everyone. The spirit of the ‘Irish Ferries dispute’ needs to be revived, workers need to organise and be prepared to actively defend their rights in the workplace and if need be on the streets.

“Kathleen Lynch points out that wealth is not redistributed either into wages, social expenditure, health or education, the 26-Counties spend 7.5 per cent of GDP on health compared to 10.4 per cent in France or an EU average of 8.7 percent, the present crisis in the misdiagnosis of women in the Midlands hospital illustrates this clearly. The 26-County state only spends half the amount of GDP on education as states such as Denmark.

An economy should serve its people not the other way round, Republican Sinn Féins’s social and economic programme SAOL NUA provides an alternative view of economic democracy. We need to think outside the box in terms of sustainable wealth generation and distribution”

Ends.