Cuireann An Phoblacht fáilte roimh litreacha ónár léitheoirí. Scríobh i nGaeilge nó i mBéarla, 200 focal ar a méid. Déantar giorrú ar litreachta más gá. Cuir do litir chuig [email protected]
An Phoblacht welcomes readers’ letters. Write in Irish or English, 200 words maximum. Letters may be edited for brevity. Send your letters to [email protected]. No attachments please

One law for them...

I am incandescent with rage at the latest news that the Chief Executive of Bank of Ireland  received a pension top up of €1.49 million. In January I, like many thousands, was told by my present employer that they would not be paying their pension contributions due to “tough times” and that my wages were being cut.
Yet this bank which is being supported by the State, ie myself, is giving away money like confetti.
Enough is enough.
Paul Doran,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22

Union leaders sold workers out

The agreement between Ireland’s public sector trade unions, the government and employers to ban strikes until 2014 gives full expression to the role of the union bureaucracy as the ally of the financial aristocracy and its plundering of public finances.
The agreement, reached 31 March in the offices of the Labour Relations Commission, will drastically influence the lives of 300,000 public service workers. It sets down a new marker in the class collaboration practised by the trade union bureaucracies throughout Europe, which are seeking to emulate the “Irish model” in imposing the costs of recession and the financial crisis on the working class.
The proposals include large-scale job cuts, productivity and flexibility provisions aimed at ‘organisational rationalisation.’  Finally, ‘Strikes or other forms of industrial action by trade unions, employees or employers are precluded in respect of any matters covered by this Agreement.’
In return for these pledges, the government and the employers have ostensibly agreed that there will be no further pay cuts, and any redundancies will be ‘voluntary.’  Even so, 18,000 jobs are immediately at risk, with 6,000 of these in the health service. 
 What Ireland needs today is a union that is strong and not an ally of the government, a union that will work for the people of Ireland.  What we do not need, but we have are bootlickers, that are the yes men for the multinationals and government bodies.
Michael Rooney,
Castlebar,
County Mayo