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TUC set to repeat ICTU failures

     
  The old ways - resolutionitis, the committe rooms, the fixing, the small groups trying to run the show - that's not the future
``We will not go back to the days of industrial warfare, strikes without ballots, mass and flying pickets and secondary action and all the rest. You don't want it to happen and I won't let it happen''.

This was Tony Blair speaking as the first British Labour Party prime minister to address the TUC for 20 years.

Blair was speaking to delegates telling them that the Thatcher union-bashing legislative agenda of the past 18 years would not be rolled back. Instead it was the Trade Union Movement that would have to change. ``The old ways - resolutionitis, the committe rooms, the fixing, the small groups trying to run the show - that's not the future''.

Instead he wanted a new ``culture of modern trade unionism'', where unions would become more democratic. He urged them to follow the example of New Labour. Blair claimed that it wasn't industrial muscle that would influence him but ``the persuasivness of unions' arguments''.

On the plus side Blair did come to the conference promising changes in the right to union recognition, the reinstatement of workers sacked during disputes and a review of the two year qualifying period for unfair dismissal. Currently workers in Britain and the Six Counties have to wait two years before they are protected from arbitrary dismissal.

On the negative side there was Blair's vision of flexible workers who would ``build the most educated, skilled, adaptable and creative country in the western world.

Irish Trade unionists must have watched the debate at the TUC with interest as many of the motions and debates were close to those dicsussed at debates here last July at the ICTU conference. Much of the talk about social partnership between trade unions, employers and government is a path that 26-County trade unions have been following for at least the last ten years. Now their British counterparts are set to follow them.

Tony Blair is striking the same tone that Bertie Ahern did in the 26 Counties ten years ago when he was minister for Labour. He led the negotiations for the Programme for National Recovery. He in common with many employers propagated the language of global competition, of the need for cost effective flexible workers. The core theme of all this so called partnership was to make workers the focus of all change.

Yes workers are the most important part of any business but the employer and government agenda of the past ten years in the 26 Counties has been to blame workers for economic failures while at the same time implementing legislation that limit their rights. In Britain there was a range of legisation introduced in the Thatcher era. In the 26 Counties similar legislation was contained in the 1990 Industrial Relations Act.

Blair was silent on what he expected from employers in his new Britain. This is the crucial contradiction in his philosophy. There has been no legislation introduced to curb the power of employers and this is paralleled in the 26 Counties.

His own leadership of the Labour party is characterised by a small powerful group centred around him who have dictated the pace of change in party policy development since he assumed the leadership and more importantly since he assumed control of the party.

So-called social partnership has delivered little in the 26 Counties, except low wage increases for workers and increased profits for employers. Social partnership in Britain will provide the same results.

It seems that somewhere along the line the simple cause and effect of why unions exist has been forgotten deliberately. Workers formed unions because they were being exploited by employers. Are we to believe that in the 1990s such exploitation has disappeared.

It hasn't and in fact there is plenty of evidence that the situation is in many workforces worsening. One common example of this is the fact that both the ICTU and TUC conferences discussed the problems of union recognition. Here then is the real picture of where the trade union movement stands in Ireland and Britain today. Both movements are fighting for the most basic right, that of joining a union.

Tony Blair told the conference that he was looking forward to the day when ``I come to the TUC and the phrase labour law is not mentioned''. Only he can make this happen.

Cork workers march for rights

An estimated 800 people marched through Cork city last Saturday to proclaim the right of every worker to join a trade union. The demonstration was called by the Communications Workers Union in support of two of their members, Tony Moore and Ian Coughlan, who were dismissed by Airport Haulage Agents, a sub contractor of TNT, when they applied to join the union.
There was a strong turnout of Dublin union members who packed two train carriages to join the Cork march. Speakers on the march called for the government to intervene to force the company to respect the right of workers to join a union.

 

Supermarket price rip-off

Falling prices for farmers but rises for consumers. It doesn't make sense but it is the reality in the Irish food market today. A report published by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) this week showed that over the past 12 years retail food prices have risen by more than six times the increase in the amount paid to farmers for basic foodstuffs.
The report also shows that the farmers cut of food products is only one third of the retail price that we pay in our supermarkets. Other parts of the report also show the exploitative practices of supermarkets.

Beef prices have been relatively unchanged over the past twelve years. Prices in supemarkets have risen by over 15%. Lamb prices have fallen by 14% for farmers but the prices we pay have risen by 34%. Pigmeat prices have fallen by 3% but the price we pay has risen 39%. Dairy product prices have risen by 28% but the price consumers pay has risen by 62%. Wheat prices have fallen by 12%, but the price of bread has increased by 27%.

The report has been presented to the minister for Enterprise and Employment Mary Harney as well as the Consumers Association. It remains to be seen whether Harney is prepared to take on the retail giants who are hiking up these prices. We are watching, Mary.