UNITE Calls for immediate resignation of failed political establishment

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Saturday November 20, 2010 15:57

by pat c

Union leaders are now calling for the Cowen/Gormley mob to go. Jimmy Kelly kicks the ball rolling with a call to join in ICTUs demo November 27th. But thats hardly enough.Jimmy at the time said that UNITE was forced into the Croke Park deal. The record of te ICTU leadership must be examined. Its their craven policies which gave the Cowen Junta the ability to cut wages even further and to now plan to demolish the Health, Welfare and Education sectors.

Support the ICTU Demo but no illusions in ICTU. We need a new Union leadership. One that fights to make the rich pay for the crisis.

Jimmy Kellys statement is below.

*Go in a week and let the people decide who will negotiate
*People urged to join national protest on November 27th

A leading trade union figure, Jimmy Kelly of UNITE, has called on the people of Ireland to make their views known clearly to those who are presently deciding the economic landscape likely to frame the next decade.

“Our government has finally surrendered control after two years of what can only be described as incompetence and lies,” said UNITE Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly. “Yet still they go to cut ribbons and profess anger at being questioned on whether they are ashamed of their performance. They have treated the Irish people like fools and must step down immediately.”

“We have heard that it is the markets fault, that the banks lied to them and that it was somehow our fault for questioning them and undermining confidence.”

“This is the sham politics to which we have descended and the country deserves better.”

“The IMF is now running the rule over figures which the Department of Finance have had from the banks and elsewhere for two years. They will evaluate and plot a course of action that has nothing to do with the future of our country and is only concerned with financial equations.”

“Our politicians could have steered towards a path of growth but they chose instead to bow down before their beloved markets. They were the fool in the room and now families that are struggling to survive will be burdened with debt and a generation lost to emigration.”

“There is no place left at the table for disgraced politicians that have only thought of themselves. They should be forced to step down immediately, relinquishing their fancy cars and crazy expenses and allow the people to decide who it is to negotiate our way out of the mess they have created.”

“If they are not gone within a week then the people of Ireland who are staging a national demonstration on Saturday 27th at the GPO in Dublin, a symbol of what we fought for and have now put at fatal risk, must make them do so.”

END

Further information:

UNITE Regional Secretary Jimmy Kelly 087 9003217 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 087 9003217 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
UNITE (Ireland) Press Office Rob Hartnett 086 3851955 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 086 3851955 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

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Comments (4 of 4)

TEEU backs civil unrest campaign

Sat Nov 20, 2010 16:11

The TEEU show the way forward. But at the end of the piece you will see thart the craven Cody of IMPACT wants the IMF too meet ICTU!

For what? A formal Surrender?

TEEU backs civil unrest campaign

IRISH TIMES REPORTERS

Sat, Nov 20, 2010

One of the country’s largest trade unions has passed a motion calling for a campaign of civil disobedience if the Government does not hold a general election.

An overwhelming majority of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) voted in favour of the motion at the union's biennial conference in Galway today.

The emergency motion, which was put forward by the union’s executive, “condemns the Government for its criminal negligence in the management of the economy and for colluding with the banks in misleading the Irish people as to the seriousness of the crisis we face”.

It says that “this policy of economic sabotage has led to the betrayal of our country and to the loss of the last shreds of our economic sovereignty.

“We now call on the Government to resign, hold a general election and face the verdict of the electorate.

“If the Government persists in clinging to power we call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and other civil society organisations to launch a campaign of civil disobedience to force an election on a regime that has no principles and no objective beyond staying in office for as long as possible”.

Ictu general secretary David Begg said the banks were “lying through their teeth to Nama about the value of their loan books”.

In an address to the conference, Mr Begg said the Government guarantee to the banking bond holders was “a terrible mistake” and the trade union movement would not “acquiesce in the ruination of our society".

He said Ictu was calling for a mass mobilisation on November 27th next to end deflationary policies that will cost 90,000 jobs and cause “ruination of our society”.

The general secretary of the TEEU, Eamon Devoy, said the country was "on the brink of significant civil unrest in this country, the like of which has not been witnessed in this jurisdiction for decades”.

He strongly criticised the Government’s plan to take €6 billion out of the economy in the next budget.

“When the draconian measures being proposed are heaped on top of the €14.5 billion cuts already implemented in the last three brutal budgets, life in Ireland will be unbearable.”

Mr Devoy told union members that in the next election, they should “vote for candidates who address the needs of working people”.

Separately, it is understood the European trade union organisation Etuc has urged that the IMF/European Commission/ European Central Bank team in talks on the proposed rescue package for the State should meet the social partners.

The request was made by the general secretary of Etuc John Monks in a letter sent yesterday to the EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn.

Yesterday Shay Cody, general secretary of Impact, the largest public service union in Ireland, also urged that such a meeting should take place.

Siptu warns on minimum wage cut

Sun Nov 21, 2010 14:49

Siptu warns on minimum wage cut

Sun, Nov 21, 2010

The head of one of the country’s biggest unions today called for the minimum wage and low-paid workers’ salaries to remain untouched in the drive to secure €15 billion in savings.

Jack O’Connor, general president of Siptu, said imposing cuts on vulnerable workers is an agenda peddled by the elite of society who benefited most from the boom.

“They do not offer any meaningful contribution to the resolution of the economic crisis,” the trade union leader said.

Speculation is growing that social welfare will be cut, the minimum wage reduced, new taxes introduced and existing taxes increased as the Government strives to dramatically reduce the cost of running the country and pay for a bank bailout.

The minimum wage of €8.65 - the second highest in Europe - is reportedly in the firing line.

Mr O’Connor said calls to reduce low-paid workers’ salaries were “echoing the agenda of that element that floats at the top of society, who were cheer leaders for the property bubble and who benefited most from it”.

Mr O'Connor, who is also president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said the elite were also behind ill-conceived policies that aggravated the downturn over the past two years.

“Now they want to restructure the social architecture of Ireland, which is already one of the most unequal countries in the world, to impose a new, more brutal form of tooth and claw capitalism,” he said.

“Brazenly, they are exploiting the weakened position of the Government to oblige the most vulnerable in society, and middle and lower-income families, to shoulder the burden of adjustment while they escape scot free.

“According to their gospel, the profligacy of the rich can only be redeemed through the crucifixion of the poor.”

Mr O’Connor urged anyone opposed to wage cuts for the lowest paid to join the March for a Better Way demonstration in Dublin city centre next Saturday.

bluffer

by C. Lee

Sun Nov 21, 2010 16:54

Jack O'Connor is a bluffer. He has stated that the bondholders should not share the pain with the taxpayer. Even leading capitalists are now calling for a bondholder 'haircut'., otherwise the problem cannot be solved.
When capitalists are further to the left than workers' leaders there is a serious problem.
The march will be a cathartic venting for citizen anger, but this energy will be channeled by O'Connor and Begg into innocuous, pro-capitalist activity.

Question Jimmy

by unite member

Sun Nov 21, 2010 18:48

There is no place left at the table for disgraced politicians that have only thought of themselves. They should be forced to step down immediately, relinquishing their fancy cars and crazy expenses and allow the people to decide who it is to negotiate our way out of the mess they have created.”

Jimmy that is all well and good but who should we vote for? Should Unite not take this opportunity and launch a campaign for a new working class party backed by the unions to organise a political fightback for the working class?

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UNITE Calls for immediate resignation of failed political establishment

Comments (4 of 4)