Republican News · Thursday 27 February 2002

Partnership - better off in or out?

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

'The best we can do in a time of uncertainty' or 'nothing more than a pay deal and a bad one at that'?

In coming weeks, union members will vote on the sixth partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress. There is growing discord between the social partners and government on this agreement with division mounting too in the Trade Union Movement.

Farmers' organisations have pulled out of the negotiations, while the Justice Commission of the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) have decided to sign up for the agreement, even though they were "deeply disappointed that more resources were not committed to tackling poverty".

Other community and voluntary groups, such as the Vincent De Paul (VDP), are more vocal in their opposition to the new agreement. Echoing criticism from Irish Farmers Association leader John Dillon, the VDP has described the agreement as "nothing more than a pay deal".

The society believes the partnership talks have fudged key issues in housing, social welfare, education and health and have "not addressed the reality of poverty".

Sinn Féin TD Sean Crowe has called for union members to vote no. He said, "It is not a good deal for Irish workers. It is failing to offer anything to the weakest sections of our society who depend on the membership of the trade union movement to take a principled stand on building a truly inclusive Ireland of equals." Crowe believes that is possible to "go back to the table and get a much better agreement".

This week, Bertie Ahern stepped in and urged endorsement of sustaining progress. Speaking at the opening of the National Economic and Social Development Office we had some classic Ahern verbals justifying the meagre commitments in the new agreement. He said: "We have agreed to engage with the social partners in a new, dynamic and highly-focused way on a range of special initiatives, which have a high priority in terms of social inclusion and quality of life. I have no doubt that we can make real progress in these areas, such as housing and homelessness, child poverty, literacy and early school leaving, and putting a better infrastructure of care in place."

However, there are in fact no spending commitments, no timescales, and no implementation plans on any of these issues in Sustaining Progress.

Evidence of the depth of division can be found this week in the decision of the SIPTU executive to recommend a yes vote while MANDATE is recommending rejection.

SIPTU has fallen into the CORI camp. The union's general president, Des Geraghty, admitted the flaws in the agreement but mirrored the arguments made by Ahern.

Geraghty said: "On balance, in view of the economic uncertainty" the agreement would be "in the interests of workers in all sectors as well as the unemployed and those on social welfare".

Owen Nulty, MANDATE general secretary, has a different view. Nulty believes that the agreement "offers too little to the low paid and does not attempt to bridge the gap between the low-paid and high-paid".

Nulty also criticised the provisions on union recognition, saying they were tinkering around the edges of the voluntary code of practice.

With workers voting over the next month, the arguments over this agreement should be given the widest airing possible.