Gilmore Calls On Workers To Unite

The leader of the Irish Labour party has called on Ireland's workers to "unite" during his address to one of the State's largest unions.

Speaking at the Siptu biennial delegate conference in Tralee, Co Kerry, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore called on workers to unite against those "who only want to sow division".

The union, along with the Labour Party are both rejecting Government plans to cut public sector pay and have instead urged the Government to implement reform for public services.

During a rousing and impassioned speech, Mr Gilmore said: "I am 33 years a card-carrying member of this Union, and I am proud of it. These are difficult times for Ireland and for working people. The economy is in trouble. Unemployment is at record high levels. Pay and conditions and living standards are under threat. Homes are being lost… but instead of encouraging people to work together, there are some who only want to sow division.

"Now is the time, for working people, of all sectors, to come together, to unite. To resist the dividers. To assert, as Connolly would have, that there is more that unites working people than divides us."

The Labour Leader said public sector workers were being made "scapegoats", and that there had been a belittling of the work of Gardaí, teachers, nurses, hospital workers, and council road workers, as if they "were the cause of the economic downturn".

"If you had just arrived in Ireland, and didn’t know what has happened here, you would be forgiven for believing that it was the nurses from A&E departments who borrowed all the money to speculate on development land.

"That it was the local authority librarians who lent them the money, and not the bankers. That it must have been the Gardaí who were running the banks. There are Gardai in the banks now, and for very good reason."

Last night, Jack O'Connor, who heads the union, said the stage was set for a confrontation because of the Government’s Thatcherite and 'slash-and burn' strategy.

The union has launched a campaign to thwart the Government's upcoming cuts to public sector pay and welfare, which are expected in December's budget.

(DW/BMcC)