Latest 03.06.2008
SIPTU Should Shift from Maybe To NO

Eamon Gilmore"s attack on SIPTU for raising "sectional" concerns on the Lisbon Treaty reflects a growing frustration in the Yes camp. Gilmore was furious at SIPTU"s failure to support the treaty but his attack reveal more about where he intends to take Labour.

He clearly believes that Labour has more in common with the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail than with a union which is affiliated to his own party. The enthusiasm with which Labour has aligned itself with the political right on Lisbon is in marked contrast to their lack of energy in supporting workers struggle.

Nor can SIPTU"s concerns be dismissed as " sectional". The union represents nearly a quarter of a million members and is one of the largest organisations in Irish society. It had focussed attention on a key issue what protection does the Lisbon Treaty offer to workers across the continent?

The debate on the Lisbon Treaty was confined to the National Executive of SIPTU, where one third of that body voted for outright opposition rather than the weaker position which eventually won out.

This was in marked contrast to the disgraceful manoeuvres that occurred in the ICTU. Here a number of union leaders voted for a Yes position without even consulting their own executives.

The national executives of the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Irish National Teachers Organisation did not mandate their ICTU representative to vote Yes they were not even allowed to discuss it.

The INTO even banned an article that was critical of Lisbon from their union magazine because it was too political and then voted Yes at the ICTU meeting!

The behaviour of a bureaucratic cabal in the ICTU raises serious questions about union democracy which will re-surface long after Lisbon.

The only logical position for SIPTU now is to call for a NO vote. They asked the government for assurances about collective bargaining so that references to this right in the Charter of Fundamental Rights would mean something. Cowen"s immediate response, however, was that the government would not even give a vague commitment to bring in legislation after the referendum.

When the actual text of the Charter is examined, one discovers that the Lisbon Treaty never gave an absolute right to collective bargaining. Instead it was entirely conditional on existing procedures in national law.

The relevant article 28 states

"Workers and employers, or their respective organisations, have in accordance with Union law and national law and practices, the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements….

Unlike Britain, there is no mandatory requirement for Irish employers to recognise unions. Instead Irish law is now set by the Supreme Court judgement in Ryan air case. This judgement accepted that where a non-union company sets up internal procedures for dispute resolution, workers must not only use these procedures but must also reveal their union membership to their employer should they wish unions to process a limited number of grievances to the Labour Court afterwards.

As it now stands therefore, Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights can only be interpreted in the light of the Supreme Court judgement.

Logically, SIPTU should therefore now shift from a "Maybe" to a "No"